Overcoming Educators by Maren

Overcoming Educators by Maren - December 2024 Scholarship Essay

I was in my first grade classroom, dressed as an artist, ready to go onstage to perform my class’s career day dance. I was only six yet I understood that I would soon have to choose a career in which to devote my life. Just how to make that choice, I wouldn't know for a long time. First I thought I'd be an artist, then a baker, a Broadway star, and finally… nothing.
My love for language and culture started even before my dance as an artist, at Arco Iris Spanish Immersion School. It was a relatively new school, occupying the unused storage space of a large church not far from my home. My father, who had lived in Mexico for a time and my mother, who had hosted and worked with exchange students, wanted their kids to be bilingual, so they enrolled my two brothers and me. On the first day of first grade, I was greeted by Maestra Santana. Having recently moved from Puerto Rico and not speaking any more than two dozen words of English, she set to work teaching us all she could in Spanish. Because she taught us everything from math to history, I had to learn Spanish first in order to understand the other subjects. By the two-month mark, I was already interpreting for my mom at parent-teacher conferences. However, as I progressed into middle school, native Spanish-speaking teachers dwindled and I was left with non-native speakers who had lived abroad for some years but could not understand or teach Spanish anywhere close to how well it was taught by my elementary “maestras”. Not having access to education that challenged me and made it easy to learn was incredibly frustrating. After a while, I gave up on language classes altogether.
At that point I had decided that my incredibly lacking alto singing voice would not cut it in New York and I was stuck having to choose a career pathway to pursue for the rest of high school whilst having no idea what I wanted to be. Every time I mentioned my impressive lack of a plan, my proud mother suggested, “You could study Spanish,” or “You should go into linguistics”, though I had no interest in furthering my language study at that time. Despite my harsh aversion to a language-related career field, by some good graces, I was put into one of my alternate elective classes that would go on to benefit my decision greatly: interpreting and translation.
In each class, we practiced our language skills and would talk about our futures as interpreters, though I had no interest in being an interpreter at all. However, being able to interpret for people and show them a new way of communicating ignited a passion for teaching within me. English is what I am best at and my love for books and the way language works is still alive and well, having blossomed from learning multiple languages. Eventually, I came to the realization that I could combine my love for other cultures with my love for teaching by doing what my elementary teachers did: teaching my native language abroad.
With this realization, I grew to understand that even though I didn't like to be told what field to go into, what I truly wanted to do involved those same skills in some capacity and to not discredit the ideas of others. I gained a greater appreciation for the opportunities my parents gave me and was better able to understand that, without their love for other cultures and people, I wouldn't have the drive to help others learn in situations different than my own. I know from experience that all students should have equal access to native speakers of their target language and I am incredibly excited to start my learning journey to become what the world needs more of, a good teacher.