Wise Advice for School and Life by Sam

Wise Advice for School and Life by Sam - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

I have had many teachers throughout the years that have had a great impact on my attitude toward education. No instructor however has had such a huge impact in my life as Miss Mindy Sopher. I first saw her name as my academic advisor listed in My Pack Portal, or my online account at NC State. I had no idea what type of experience I would have with her. Last summer before my freshman year, I sent her an email introducing myself and she was quite impressed by my ambitions, especially becoming a “geographical engineer.” I couldn’t wait to meet her in person at my orientation.

When orientation came and I finally got to meet her, I was in for a pleasant start to my college career. She assigned me and all of her other advisees a project in which we had to write a paper about values relating to a book we had to read over the summer as well as a visual “circle of life” depicting our own values. I felt very excited because I would have an opportunity to showcase my creativity and leave a lasting impression on my professor.

Somehow, meeting Miss Mindy left such an impression on me that she became my source for my motivation. I put in a lot of effort into writing the paper and putting together a PowerPoint presentation about my values. She was extremely impressed with my work and said that my presentation was very thorough unlike those of most of my peers. The success of my first assignment for college encouraged me to continue to work hard throughout the rest of my freshman year and I expect I will continue that effort the rest of my college career.

Later in the semester, she assigned our class a holiday interview assignment in which we had to interview two people about a career we may be interested in. Miss Mindy was kind enough to set me up with a landscape architect who worked for the school. I was impressed with the information that he gave me regarding internships and what career path to take. He strongly encouraged that I take GIS classes and suggested that I should go into civil engineering rather than environmental as it would offer me more of an opportunity to display my creativity. If it had not been for Miss Mindy and her efforts, I would probably be less focused on what career path to take and I would have been less motivated to pursue my interests.

Furthermore, other activities she had me and my classmates do have expanded my mind and have changed how I viewed society as well as myself. For example, she taught us about the MBTI and Strong Interest Inventory assessments. I did these assessments online and the reports I got back on them basically told me about the kind of person that I am and what my interests are. The MBTI assessment told me that I focus my attention on the outside world, I take in information through the senses, I make decisions based on my values, and I deal with the world with a flexible, open-minded approach. The Strong Interest Inventory suggested careers I may be successful in as well as information about my interests. Most assuring to me in my report was seeing mathematics as my highest interest and investigative as my predominant theme, as I feel that I am a strong student in math and a highly curious individual who likes to seek out facts. I was a bit unsatisfied with some of the other results. However, Miss Mindy told me to just use these assessment reports as a guide, as I am ultimately in control of what career path I decide to take.

Last but not least, our class did an activity in which we had to draw pictures representing a book or movie on an index card. We then passed the cards around the table and guessed the name of the book or movie based on the drawing. Some of the drawings were difficult for me and my peers to interpret so we made quite a few awfully wrong guesses. This exercise taught me that we all as individuals interpret things differently which is what makes our experiences in life interesting, especially with regards to education. If we all interpreted everything the same way, this world would be very boring, as there would be no room for questioning and investigating, which is what leads to further learning. From my experiences with Miss Mindy and her assignments, I now believe that life is meant to be a journey of learning and deciding for yourself where you want to go. She has provided me a method for examining my life and career which should help me be more successful throughout the rest of my life.