Lessons in Chemistry by Mia

Lessons in Chemistry by Mia - March 2024 Scholarship Essay

Growing up I was always one of the biggest science nerds in my family. I was the student at the book fair buying science books, medaling in the science olympiad, and getting near-perfect scores on my science tests. When my junior year of high school started, we were required to take chemistry. It posed as a struggle for most students. I obtained the A by answering the questions right and not by truly understanding the material.

In the midst of this I noticed my chemistry partner struggling so I offered to tutor her. Juggling elite sports, and academics and now making time to support one of my peers was a challenge, but one I was willing to accept. Meeting at the Starbucks after school, we went over old quizzes, new topics, and revisions for hours. Initially, my explanations were not comprehensible to her, even after showing her my work I realized it wasn’t productive to help her. When I got home after the first day I started to problem-solve ways to explain my thoughts and knowledge more understandably. I took extra time to look over my notes and started going to our chem teacher and reciting our new units as a practice to develop a more user-friendly voice.

Over a few weeks as my voice simplified so did the chemistry in my brain. My friend Dayanna started passing her quizzes and was understanding more and more concepts. This brought me a great sense of pride knowing I could help people succeed, but I knew more students were struggling in my class so I decided to tutor and re-teach the subjects to others. When we would get designated work time I would spend that time going over to tables that requested my help. I helped ease any major confusion and stress with my peers and took a workload off the teacher. Not only did test scores start to rise, but so did grades, and eventually my peers achieved passing grades.

Engaging in this challenge helped our class, but through this experience, I found it also helped the betterment of myself. Naturally being an empathetic person I got to combine my academics and empathy to support others. I also discovered that I am a science translator. By taking the chance to help out a friend I learned about the communication skills necessary to share my knowledge. After helping my friend Dayanna achieve success, watching her joy made me realize the impact I made on one person, which then eventually led me to help out my entire class or anyone who asked for it. But not only did I help them, but they ended up helping me too, they helped me develop the ability to share my knowledge in a comprehensible way, a skill set that I believe will help me greatly and carry me through the future.