College Admission Essay

The most important thing that I learned during my undergraduate studies is that change is one of the only things in life that is consistent. During my time at Duquesne University, I switched majors, held three different jobs, and made and lost friends. Nothing stayed the same for me, and as a white woman from the suburbs with a middle-class family and a Catholic education, same was all that I knew. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I chose to pursue education. Education is one of the most changing fields of study. The very nature of education calls for a change with the times. With each new year comes a brand-new class of young minds, able to be molded by new experiences. They come from all types of backgrounds, and they each come with

This combination can also be considered change.

Something that has not changed for me is my interest in education. Since I was a little girl, I have always wanted to become a teacher. My mother is a high school history teacher, and I grew up having her as a role model in the world of education. I started my undergraduate journey as a music education major but quickly realized that, although I loved education, I had chosen the wrong specialty. I also realized that, to be a proper educator, one must be a master of their specialty. Therefore, I decided to switch my major to a Bachelor of Arts in English, always having the full intent of obtaining my Master of Arts in Teaching and becoming a high school English teacher. Once I made this change, I knew that I needed to gain as much experience in the area of teaching as possible without being an education major. So, I made my work experience

Therefore, I like to categorize my goals into two groups: my “now” goals and my “future” goals. My “future” goals are tentative and ones that I am opening to changing. I would eventually like to pursue a Ph. D in Education, becoming a professor in Education, or earn a Master’s in Administration and become a principal. However, these are my “future” goals; I know that I need experience to reach them, and that they may change at any moment. My “now” goals are in the moment; they focus on the world that is currently taking shape around me. For me, achieving these goals means visiting high school classrooms. It means reacting to the students around me based on their needs. It means volunteering, working, and traveling to new communities so that I can learn from people as people and they can learn from me as a teacher. It means gaining the experience necessary to earn my Master of Arts in Teaching and become a high school English teacher, which is the most exciting “now” goal that I have. I have never left Pittsburgh, but I have heard so many wonderful things about the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill’s Master of Arts in Teaching program through online sources, word-of-mouth, and meetings with the program’s staff. Moving to Chapel Hill would be one of the biggest changes of my life, but after learning from all of my experiences in my undergraduate career, I am ready for