Love of Learning by Grace

Love of Learning by Grace - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

“I am not going to college.” I asserted to my mother after coming home from a particularly grueling Spanish I community college class. I loved learning languages, but detested my Spanish class. When my Spanish teacher read her the lesson directly from her book, she looked as bored as I felt. In fact, it was this experience that led me to understand why so many of my peers hated school. They hated school because many teachers take all the wonder and creativity out of their subjects and replace it with cold, unfeeling facts and recitation. For all my life I have loved to discover new things, the older I became the more I loved school. However, my interests proved diverse which caused me to question my future career path. From airsoft to debate or jiu jitsu to reading I knew my future job would need to combine activity and knowledge. Thus, I needed an ever evolving job and also wanted to share the wonder and creativity of learning with everyone. So I chose an Economics and Business Analytics major.
At first Economics and Business Analytics seem unrelated to my love for learning and desire to share that love with others. It would seem that a teaching major would best suit my purposes, but my intentions do not simply stop at teaching. As mentioned, I need a job that constantly changes. Therefore, I intend to take my Business degree and start a school dedicated to teaching others the wonder of learning while encouraging an atmosphere of excellence and academic rigor. The instance with my Spanish teacher laid the foundation for the desire to imbue creativity and hands-on learning in other students. However, visiting Patrick Henry College, the college I desire to attend, resulted in my desire to start a school that emphasized high academic rigor.
Stepping onto Patrick Henry College’s campus was like stepping through a portal. I was transported into a realm in which every student, like me, loved learning. The drive for excellence I observed at Patrick Henry instilled a desire to take this alternate realm back home with me. The experiences I had with my teachers, both good and bad, laid the foundational vision for my school while visiting Patrick Henry solidified my desire to understand economics and business. Thus, I hope to embark on the exciting journey of college with a business major at Patrick Henry College so that I might take the skills I learn and bring them back to Florida so a new generation of students can learn to love learning.