School is More than an Education, Teachers are More than Educators by Shaya

School is More than an Education, Teachers are More than Educators by Shaya - July 2014 Scholarship Essay

While every student is responsible for his or her own grades, test scores, and academic achievements, ultimately it is the teachers that define a student’s education. Without teachers enacting the role of academic advisers, students are forced to walk the path of education in isolation with no trail blazers of experience and wisdom to guide them in the direction in which they want their future to proceed. I am thankful to all the teachers in the expanse of my academic career who each provided me with morsels of the knowledge I now possess, but there was one teacher that did more than teach me; he prepared me profession I hope to someday embrace.

During my senior year of high school, my advanced placement English teacher, Ken Wickliffe, recognized my talent for the language arts. Personally, he pulled me aside after class to discuss with me the impressive quality of my essays and writing assignments, informing me I was one of the most proficient English students he had ever taught over the extent of his career. This conversation transformed into an interview over what I wanted to do with the remainder of my life regarding my future career choice. When I told him that I wanted to become a fiction author, he pointed me towards a possible career path I previously did not know existed.

Mr. Wickliffe introduced me to a career opportunity for authors known as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. With the aid of this program, anyone, anywhere, at any time could publish a book that they wrote in Amazon’s Kindle E-book store. My teacher himself had success with the program and earned a sizable amount of money from the books that he co-authored. With Mr. Wickliffe’s advice, I signed up for the program the day I turned eighteen and became eligible. Since then I have published several original short stories and have merited a bit of money that I am able to put towards my college education.

Because of this teacher, I have already accomplished my dream of being a published author at only nineteen years old. Because of this teacher, I am now more able to realistically afford a college education. Before Mr. Wickliffe came into my life and my classroom, I viewed school as an obligation everyone must perform and suffer through. Now I realize that a good education is one of the building blocks of a healthy brain, a future career, and the rest of my life.