"Academic Inspiration" by Lauren

"Academic Inspiration" by Lauren - October 2019 Scholarship Essay

The person that has most inspired me academically is my high school band director. While a band director may seem like an unlikely person to create a profound impact on your academic career, my band director has provided me with more encouragement and support than any of my academic teachers. Over my four years in high school, he has taught me several important skills such as perseverance and the importance of practice and hard work, which I have been able to apply to my academics and have aided in my overall success as a student.
First, my band director has taught me the important skill of perseverance. When I was in eighth grade, I decided to audition for the high school marching band. I was extremely nervous for my upcoming audition with the high school director because he worked with high schoolers who were assuredly more skilled and talented than I was, so I let my nerves get the best of me. Several weeks after my audition, I received my audition results and learned that I had not made it into the marching band and instead had been placed in the lowest level band. On my audition results packet, the director had written a plethora of constructive comments on my performance and explained that he was looking forward to me joining the band program at the high school next year. While I could sense the genuineness of his compliments, I decided that there wasn’t any point in trying to improve since I was only going to be in the lowest band and failed to take his comments to heart, as I should have.
The following fall, I entered my first year of high school band feeling discouraged and ashamed that I was in the concert band while most of my other friends were in the upper level bands, known as symphonic and wind symphony. During my freshman year, we were once again given the opportunity to audition for the following season of marching band, so I decided that I was going to give it another try, despite my lack of self-confidence. I decided to meet with my band director outside of school to practice the audition music and continued using his tips and advice to improve my skills and even with hours upon hours of hard work, I still did not make it into marching band; so the following year, I worked even harder. My band director was willing to spend hours of his own time practicing my music with me in the band room for several months. He helped me learn how to play the rhythms by clapping out the beats, writing in all the counts, and making recordings of him clapping out the rhythms for me to reference later during my own practice sessions. We even did “mock auditions” that would help me to feel less nervous for my upcoming audition. He continued to encourage me and helped me to believe that I was capable of becoming a member of the marching band and at the end of my sophomore year, I learned that my hard work had finally paid off and despite it taking two years, I was officially a member of the marching band!
Through this experience, my band teacher taught me the importance of hard work and practice, as well as the benefit of persevering despite facing difficulties and obstacles. He helped me learn that through hard work and determination, you can achieve any goal that you set your mind to. These are the skills that have not only helped me improve as a band student, but also as a student when applied to my academic courses. For example, math has always been an area of difficulty for me in school and one that I have struggled with since elementary school. For several years, I simply settled on the idea that I would never be able to improve my math skills and it would always be difficult for me, but after having learned how to persevere through my troubles from my band teacher in high school, my outlook changed. During my sophomore year, I decided to take advantage of the math tutor center at school to get extra help outside of class to ensure my understanding of the material. I also made sure that I was asking questions in class, rather than settling for not understanding, and putting in extra hours of study time for math tests and quizzes. During my junior year, I even took two math classes concurrently, which is something that I would have been unable to do without the guidance and advice from my band director. Now, as I begin my senior year, math has become much less of a frustration and struggle for me because I have learned how to persevere through my challenges and overcome my obstacles.
In conclusion, my band director has inspired me the most academically because he has provided me with numerous invaluable lessons that I have been able to apply not only to my instrumental skills, but also my academics and that I will continue to carry with me for the rest of my life.