The Most Inspirational Instructor by Kathryn

The Most Inspirational Instructor by Kathryn - June 2021 Scholarship Essay

Information technology is a field that I was always interested in, but I never had much exposure to until middle school. I’ll never forget my teacher for Exploring Computer Science class, Mrs. Ribbe. She was the first person who encouraged me to pursue it. Throughout my childhood, the typical programmer portrayed in movies and media looked nothing like me. The historic gender gap in computer science affects young women more than others might know. But Mrs. Ribbe helped break the, “You can’t be what you can’t see” motto. She was an inspiring role model with real experience in the field.

Over the summer before 8th grade, I developed an interest in computers. From the moment I stepped into her class, it grew. Mrs. Ribbe is one of the only teachers on campus who took students' schedules in consideration and tried to have lessons run at a comfortable, yet engaging pace.

At the beginning of the year, I learned the importance of teamwork and acceptance with peers of all different backgrounds and experience when we did group activities. I still remember that I enjoyed making paper boats to hold floating pennies and exploring hardware components with randomized groups.

I appreciated how she went over key concepts and explained things so well with interactive examples. She used fellow students to demonstrate lessons, to make it more relevant to our class. The real-life examples were fun, and everyone listened and laughed more when she did that.

Mrs. Ribbe was influential because she gave us a spectacular year. All of the little details that showed much she cared added up. She wrote the agenda on the board every day with perfect handwriting, created study guides and handouts to help us, was always available if we needed a helping hand with our projects, and took time out of her day to review and give us insight.

I sincerely appreciate everything she’s done for her students. I've never met an educator or teacher who has a heart as big as hers. I’m so lucky to have had such an outstanding mentor, and fellow woman in the STEM field.

Thanks to her, my self-esteem has skyrocketed, my computer skills have greatly improved, and I've learned what it means to have a family environment in a class where the teacher cares about each and every one of her students.

She is inspiring, encouraging, thoughtful, and patient. Because of her wonderful personality and amazing class, I will never forget her. She continued to support me after the class was over as well, emailing me opportunities for girls in computer science and writing me recommendations that spoke to my work ethic. I’m no longer in middle school, but going into my junior year of high school, my love for technology has grown exponentially. Mrs. Ribbe is one of the main reasons I'm pursuing software development and entering my first computer science related job this summer.