She Played her Role; I Became a Model student by Temptaous

She Played her Role; I Became a Model student by Temptaous - September 2013 Scholarship Essay

When asked the question of who my most inspirational academic role model was, I had a very hard time deciding which of my role models to choose. While in enrolled at Elizabeth City State University, I encountered many different role models; from my department chair, Chantelle MacPhee, all the way to the program director of our school’s radio and my internship supervisor, Randy Jones. Not to my mention my mother, an educator that is an advocate for continuing education. Yet, there is one role model that has been beyond uplifting, encouraging, and inspirational. The great Ms. Latoya M Scott is my most inspirational role model.
Ms. Scott instructed my Introduction to Broadcasting as well as my Journalism I&II courses. When I met her I knew immediately she was the instructor that ECSU needed. In our communications department, many students felt we were lacking teachers who have had real life experiences in the field which we were trying to enter. Ms. Scott had been formerly employed with one of Richmond, Virginia’s local news networks. To the students we knew she was exactly what we were searching for. Elizabeth City was able to give us awesome teachers in the field of communications, but no one was able to see things on our level. Not only did we need an instructor with real life experiences, we also needed an instructor who could understand how Twitter worked, and how Twitter could be used as a news platform, rather than just a source of social media. She was the first instructor to encourage us to use our cellular devices to access news updates, which had not been done before.
During my undergraduate years, I found myself struggling with the thought of continue to remain in school and to finish perusing my degree. My junior year I struggled the most because at this time, my mother had taken on a job overseas to help support the family. I was left to attend school by myself, without the safety net of my mother being three hours away. That same year, Ms. Scott planned a trip to The Christian Broadcasting Network, home to the “700 Club”, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. While there we were able to see a tapping of the “700 Club”, and during the taping I realized that I had to complete school. After the taping we were able to walk around the studios and see the setup of the network, and I felt like a child in Macy’s on Christmas Eve. Ms. Scott knew that the trip was not only what I needed to see my future, but all the students needed to see, so that they too could envision their future in the field of media.The trip to CBN, convinced me to remain in school.
Ms. Scott is my most inspirational role model because she did not give up on us. She did not simply give us handouts because of our circumstance. She taught us that we had to put our best foot forward and be the impact that the media world needed. As I begin to enter this next chapter of my life into graduate school, Ms. Scott continues to give me great advice. She is an instructor I will never forget and she has certainly and will always be one of my most inspirational academic role models.