Learning through Service by Spencer

Learning through Service by Spencer - September 2017 Scholarship Essay

Deciding what to do for the rest of your life can be a very difficult and confronting decision. Facing this dilemma through the beginning years of my college experience left me facing stress and high levels of anxiety. I spent many credit hours wading through general education courses and intro classes to help me to decide what had passion for and what I saw myself doing for a living in the future. Unfortunately, nothing spurred any passion or desire like some of my peers had described to me as they fell into their rightful majors at the university. Negative thoughts began to creep into my mind telling me there was no place in this world for someone like me.
In the tiring process of signing up for new classes for the following semester, I came across as course labeled “Intro to Health Professions.” The first thoughts that smashed through my head seemed to focus instantly on insane surgeries, painful procedures, and even experiences with death. Considering this for only a few seconds I pushed the thought out of my mind and continued my search. My roommate must have noticed my distorted face and in response described to me the great experience he had in Intro to Health Professions. He had taken it last semester and thoroughly enjoyed it. He continued to explain the wide variety of medical professions that came in but elaborated on the service he participated in upon requirement to the course. Exhausted in trying to find another worthwhile class to fill up my schedule with, I reluctantly registered for the “Intro to Heath Professions” course and hoped for the best.
The course reflected exactly what my roommate had described. Many interesting and entertaining medical professionals presented on their “day in the life” experience in their profession and elaborated on their own path they took that led them to where they were at the present day. One of the more important concepts I took note of included that every single professional followed a very unique path to fit their personalities and passions. I loved this concept and sincerely admired the flexibility and creativity of each professional.
In addition to the great people I met and the presentations I participated in, the “Intro to Health Professions” course required 4+ hours of service directed to the same group or institution of our choice. Because of this requirement, I enthusiastically chose a local university group called Anatomy Academy. This six-week program required that we, as a small group of college students, got to teach simple human physiology concepts to a specific group of fourth-grade students every week. We helped teach difficult concepts to the students through our own fun and creative lesson plans that involved each student in the learning process. One of my favorite memories of this service group took place when we taught the lesson on the digestive system. We began at the breakdown process in the mouth with a lot of our conversation focused on the teeth. A specific student, named Braden, began to get excited about his teeth and eagerly showed me his “big hole” positioned in one of his baby premolars. As clear as he described, a “big hole” had dug itself on the inside of his tooth. He then continued to explain to me the increasing pain experienced when eating and rattled on about his teeth brushing habits that frankly, were nonexistent, smiling the whole time. Surprisingly confused in his enthusiasm, I cherished the next few moments as I helped him understand the detrimental results of unhealthy teeth. I even took a picture on my phone of his tooth to display to him the severity of the case.
Because of this experience in Anatomy academy and because I registered for the elective course of Intro to Health Professions, I came to realize and experience my desire for service and enthusiasm in working with little kids. This has led to many hours of counseling with academic counselors, job shadowing, and engagement in community service and ultimately my choice to pursue the profession of dentistry to become a pediatric dentist. The Intro to Health Professions course allowed me to not only academically decide what I was passionate about but allowed me to experience, through service, my passions and desires for the future. I am on track to graduate in 2019 with a Bachelor’s of Science in biology with a human anatomy emphasis and I have set goals to help me apply and get accepted into dental school to experience my vision of becoming a pediatric dentist.