Mr. Ed and the Black Hole of AP Physics by Loveis

Mr. Ed and the Black Hole of AP Physics by Loveis - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

I had spent the previous five days working tirelessly to decode undecipherable formulas and solve impenetrable problems, and I entered the test with confidence. After reading the first question, I looked around to make sure I was in the right class. I thought I might have accidentally stepped into Advanced Conversational German. To my dismay, I was, indeed, in the black hole of AP Physics. I tried channeling my inner Einstein, but with each incomprehensible question, my pulse accelerated and the pool of sweat on my forehead grew.

My heart free fell when Mrs. Cao handed our tests back some days later. I had earned an “F,” and for the first time in my high school career, I feared I might fail an entire class. The gravity of the disappointment was too much to bear. I had hit my academic ground state, my scholastic trough.

After school that day, I went to the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition (BRYC), the after-school program I am a part of, to ask my program director, Ms. Lauren, if she could recommend a BRYC physics tutor. When she suggested I talk to Ed Shim, I wandered around the building until I found him – a tall, slender, twenty-something wearing light blue scrubs. “Mr. Ed,” as I call him, is an electrocardiogram technician at Baton Rouge General Medical Hospital, who generously dedicates four hours of every week to tutoring at BRYC.

At BRYC, tutors who are strong in various subjects hold “open hours” Monday through Thursday for students to take advantage of. I started attending on days I knew Mr. Ed would be there. As my performance in AP Physics gradually improved as a result of our work together, I claimed him for my own. Soon, people started identifying him as “Loveis’s tutor.”

Mr. Ed became a catalyst to my physics success. We would meet at a frequency of three times per week for three hours, working on homework assignments and reviewing problems for upcoming tests. Mr. Ed used everything from pencils and globes to paper clips and Skittles to make sure we were on the same wavelength about challenging concepts. Once he explained the concepts, I would share them back to check my understanding. He would sit patiently as I completed problems independently, and when I encountered a stumper, he would jog my memory of formulas and encourage me to draw diagrams until I solved it.

I finished the semester with a 91% – light-years ahead of where I started – proving that I am not a person who will allow inertia to prevent my potential energy from becoming power. To change an existing state or a uniform motion, an external force must be introduced. One of those forces was my self-advocacy, which led me to ask for help and secure the best physics tutor on this planet. The other force was my work, through which I turned Mr. Ed’s support into results. Now, my momentum is too great for future academic challenges to stop me.