Education Outside In by Tracy

Education Outside In by Tracy - June 2024 Scholarship Essay

We are taught that schooling is supposed to help us operate our lives in the real world. Slowly, we progress from school to school, building from addition to algebra to calculus to, finally, critically analyzing our every decision. However, by flipping this narrative, I’ve been able to succeed academically with help from the outside world. Like the reversible reactions I learned about in AP Chemistry, I use both my formal education to inform my extracurricular decisions, and my self-directed learning efforts to bolster my academic success.

Since I was young, I always loved reading. While my classmates were on the playground or sand pit, I found solace in heart-racing fiction and fantasy. Despite the years, my reading habit has yet to falter. What I loved so much as a kid, and still love now, was experiencing something completely new, whether it was as bizarre as kingdoms of dragons or as real as a biography of Unity Mitford. I believe my love for learning was born out of the magic in those pages of text I got lost in. Over time, with the advent of the internet, my endless exploration of the unknown has turned from reading physical books to watching video essays, reading articles, and searching up questions I encounter in my day to day life. I approach every day as an opportunity to learn, even outside of school hours.

My hunger for knowledge has helped me succeed academically in ways that may not seem obvious. The simpler answer would be that sometimes my external learning translates directly to learning in school, like how fooling around on Khan Academy’s JavaScript lessons as a middle schooler made writing an entire app for my AP Computer Science Principles performance task a breeze. However, the biggest lessons I took away from my personal drive to learn were much more implicit. The many hours I spent reading taught me to analyze assignments in depth and communicate my understanding clearly. Watching YouTube videos on high level math concepts and mysteries in biology taught me to appreciate the once grueling labor of my STEM classes. My initially hobbyist interest in linguistics, stemming from reading about conlangs and watching subtitled international movies, led to me taking German II through a local community college during my junior year of high school. I am certain there are hundreds of other ways my fundamental desire to always keep learning have translated to success in my academics, whether subtle or not.

We are always taught that our grades are supposed to represent our learning. If I understand the subject and perform well on my tests, I get an A. So I find it perfectly natural that my desire to learn has played a major role in my academic success. I have already proven myself willing to work hard simply for the sake of knowledge; undoubtedly, I can achieve even more in my formal schooling.