AP and Me by Jackson

AP and Me by Jackson - January 2025 Scholarship Essay

Baltimore, Maryland. She rode from Baltimore to Silver Spring everyday on her way to school and back. She did not even live that close to here yet she gave me a home. I had never gone to public school before because I was blessed to be able to go to a private school for not too much money but that only made me terrified once I graduated middle school. I had only heard horror stories about how evil public schools were and how the teachers did not care about their students at all. Ms. Z made sure to disprove all that I thought I knew about high school.

My AP US History teacher imprinted a permanent study behavior that lasted the entirety of four years of high school. The first day of school, Ms. Z made clear of her expectations for our success and the extreme commitment she required of our class. Each day was spent from the first to the last minute, not a second wasted. It was such an intense class in fact, that our high school instructed students to take a support class called Digital Literacy. Over the course of each of these classes, we took weekly quizzes, wrote endless notecards, and continued the heavy participation with our peers through it all. Although at the time, we believed this work to be overwhelming, it gave way for each student to develop study habits, maintain time-management skills, and succeed in our classes and life beyond AP US History.

Ms. Z did not simply impress beneficial study habits to us all but spoke to us personally and emotionally. She managed to get me and the rest of my classmates to genuinely apply ourselves greatly in a year so affected by Covid-19 that our school system gave us slack for any lazy efforts that the pandemic generated. This allowed me particularly to thrive even once the effects of Covid had vanished. I owe her greatly for the numerous Honor Roll awards and excellent gpa that I have received over these four years and the confidence that I possess in progressing in my education.