A Teacher's Impact by Joy

A Teacher's Impact by Joy - January 2025 Scholarship Essay

Throughout my experiences in grade school, several teachers and mentors have allowed me to grow academically and as a person. While all of them have been greatly beneficial in my journey, one of them stands out significantly compared to all the others. This teacher was my High School Band director, Mr. Dotson. Before his time teaching me and my peers at Allen East, he went to high school with several of my older brothers. Due to this, he came into my life when I was at a young age, so I have always thought of him as another older brother. During the lockdown of Covid 19, I was unable to see him until the next fall semester of my freshman year which was when I learned that he was going to be teaching at my high school. I was ecstatic to know that I would have someone I trusted to teach me a subject that I love dearly. This job was his dream workplace and this allowed him to be extremely involved and was always excited to be working with us. He was a wonderful person and was superior to previous teachers in developing a relationship with his students and understanding what they were going through. His eccentric personality was engaging and overall exciting to be around and he always found a way to help each of his students and knew what to do in any stressful situation that he faced.
When Mr. Dotson was hired, he was presented with a huge commitment that he was expected to fulfill. He was not only expected to teach high school marching and concert band but he also was required to teach all grades from late elementary to all of middle school. He also managed extracurricular activities such as jazz band and pep band which were both after-school organizations. This meant he spent a large amount of his free time dedicated to his job. Furthermore, he faced challenges such as respect issues with a large number of his students as he was a well-known person within the school. Even though he had all of these expectations and provocations, he was able to manage and overcome them with great success as he made his entire life about teaching the subject he loves. He spread his passion for music and made me enjoy it just the same, showing me what it could offer along with a large number of different opportunities. Opening my eyes to the world of music and giving me and my fellow students experiences were just some of the many things that he did that changed our lives for the better. This included enrolling us into several honor bands, different volunteer positions, clubs/organizations, and leadership roles. All of these provided me with different strengths such as teamwork, time management, and guidance skills that will help me as I continue through high school and into college, even taking me as far as my wanted career in medicine. Sadly, his time was cut short and he no longer works for Allen East, but having him as a teacher and mentor will stay with me for the rest of my life and I will always look back on what he did for me and all of his other students that he helped during his time teaching us.