Understanding Takes Belief by Ronan

Understanding Takes Belief by Ronan - January 2025 Scholarship Essay

My journey through education has had its ups and downs. The main subject displaying this for me has always been math. Overall, I have always been recognized as a good student and have been able to maintain high grades (A’s and B’s) throughout my entire school career. The biggest hurdle in my learning path started in my sixth grade year.
Before middle school, no subject challenged me very much. I was able to finish all of my work and do well on tests without too much effort on my part. Starting sixth grade, I would begin to find difficulty with math. The teacher of this class was not very enthusiastic about her job. Most days would consist of going over the previous night's homework, putting out a new assignment that would be homework if we did not finish it, and then having us work as she watched shows on her computer. This cycle slowly lessened my excitement to learn math and by the end of the year, it did not feel like I had learned very much from the class. Continuing on into seventh grade, I now had a poor mentality towards math and did not understand nor feel that I was able to learn the concepts that were being taught by my new teacher. In both years I was able to get through with B’s, but I now had a much lower expectation of what I would be capable of doing when it came to math. The change in my perspective started to shift thanks to my eighth grade algebra teacher.
As an eighth grader, I took my first high school credit in the form of an algebra class. This year also happened to be the first year after Covid-19 so the first quarter of classes were held online. Starting the year I thought it would be the same as the two before it. Every school day I would start by getting on zoom and listening to the lesson my algebra teacher gave. I would then do the work assigned based on the lesson and overall, did not understand the concepts very well. It turned out I was not the only one with this problem and my teacher decided to go above and beyond. After every lesson she would stay after class and explain the concepts further for those who did not do well on the homework the night before. After working with her to better understand the concepts taught, I began to gain a greater understanding during her actual lessons. I started to realize what was holding me back was not that I was incapable of understanding, but that I believed I was incapable. After the first quarter, classes began to resume in-person. The teacher always made sure to check up on individual students and refused to let any of us fall behind in the class. Her willingness to believe in my ability when I was unable to really helped me push to work harder. I ended up finishing the class with an A every quarter and gained a lot of confidence in my math abilities.
In my junior year, I completed my final math class of high school, precalculus. In not only my math classes, but all of my classes up till now at the second semester of senior year, I have been able to maintain a 4.0 GPA. I believe I owe my enhanced drive to learn and belief that I am capable of succeeding academically to my eighth grade algebra teacher. If she hadn’t worked to build me up from the pitfall of my sixth grade year, I do not think I would be the same as I am today. Though sometimes learning can be challenging, especially in math, what can be the true difference between understanding and giving up is the belief that you are capable of comprehension.