Hope In The Struggles by Kirsten

Hope In The Struggles by Kirsten - January 2025 Scholarship Essay

Hopeless, it was the spring semester during my freshman year of high school. I have never been great at math and having teachers that aren’t good at teaching doesn’t help either. Until I met Mrs.Dodd, the school I attended at the time had sectioned Algebra 1 into two sections for each semester that school year. I had Mrs.Lowe my first half of Algebra 1 and then I had Mrs.Dodd my second half of Algebra 1. Mrs.Dodd was extremely jovial, compassionate, and she was impel to inspire her students to comprehend math. My first semester of Algebra 1 with Mrs.Lowe, I had the worst grades and utterly lost hope for learning. Discouraged looking at my grades, I decided to persevere, and I tried everything! Nothing could help me and it most certainly did not help when I went to class everyday and my teacher told me I was going to fail the class, Mrs.Lowe never helped me succeed. After winter break, my classes changed and I had Mrs.Dodd as my teacher for Algebra 1. She was always uplifting and giving us hope! I didn’t know it at the time but having a teacher that believes in you can impact your grade. Mrs.Dodd’s belief in me and encouragement changed the way I learned math. Mrs.Dodd even had me excited for math class. She taught me to never give up, and even though it was just a regular math class, it taught me persistence and optimism.