Prompt: Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
Colleges I am considering: - Colorado School of Mines - Bucknell University - Lafayette College - Union College - Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering - Syracuse University - University of Colorado- Boulder - Colorado State University
I believe the United States has adopted a mindset of numbness. Society floats through life following the accepted path, but is at a loss for value and meaning. For me, this problem took shape as my education. For the first sixteen years of my life I saw the invaluable opportunity of education as an obstacle. I floated through high school with my only focus being: what’s next. My present was devalued to preparation for college.
As humans, we are innately born with a hunger for knowledge. The problem lies in the United States’ educational system which is driven by test scores and standards. Imagination and inspiration are depressed by the mold society has asked today’s teens to fit into.
In kindergarten, I saw school as an ocean of possibility. I remember coming home each day, wide eyed and wired from my previous eight hours in the land of new information. Deep down, I truly loved school, but at that time in my life, I could not have given you a reason why. It simply was. As time passed though, my love for school ultimately disappeared. On paper I looked like the perfect high school student while in reality, I woke up dreading the day ahead of me and leaving school feeling hollow. There had to be another way.
So, I took a leap of faith. Although there was only one other school I could leap to in my small, rural, Colorado town, my intuition told me that this was the correct decision. To my dismay though, I found I was victim to peer and teacher criticism due to the conflicting views between the two schools. When I announced my transference, I remember a teacher, whom I had greatly admired, expressing his immense disappointment in me. For the last five weeks of the school year, my emotional state was challenged by the backlash of my decision. I lost the certainty of lifelong friends, the support of teachers, and apprehended the loss of my leadership and sports opportunities due to the transfer. Through all of this, all I had was my intuition to lean on for a trembling support. I will admit, I questioned myself many times during these few weeks, but the feeling in my gut told me that my educational needs were more important than everything I was scared of loosing.
For many, transferring to a new high school is not monumental, but I was lucky enough to strike gold. Despite the state standards all schools must adhere to, my new school has been able to find a balance between meeting benchmarks and teaching relevant content that inspires students through critical thinking, exploration, and discovery. During my first day at Animas High School, my humanities class analyzed what our education means to us and how that translates into our society. I was astonished that two hours into the day we were already exploring topics that were significant in my everyday life and that I had not previously pondered. After a short eight hours of thought provoking content, my love for learning flowed simply back into my life.
My problem was solved by taking my education into my own hands and securing what I crave out of my school. A lot of students find it easy to follow the paved, traditional path. For me though, I found the pavement to be hard and unfulling. Education is a lifelong endeavour that should be challenging and enthralling. I am so grateful that I was able to find an educational system that satisfies my needs and has transformed my view of learning into an opportunity and a passion.