Helping Others Continues Lifelong Commitment to Education
Student Affairs Receptionist
UC Irvine Alumna
Irvine, Calif., January 1, 2012
Growing up, I was one of those students who were meticulous about homework -- especially in regards to English and grammar. While other students quickly came up with short sentences for the vocabulary words of the weeks, I perused over dictionaries and my notes to make certain that what I wrote made sense and that I was using the words in the correct context. I enjoyed talking with my teachers, participating in school activities, volunteering to read out loud in class, and learning new things. I looked up to my teachers from day one and always imagined that one day I would like to become a teacher and have a class of my own.
I dreamed of keeping cute stationary and stickers in my supply closet, grading papers and tests with red ink (as well as marking it with multiple smiley faces), and choosing only fun stories to read to my class. I would read Sideways Stories from Wayside School after lunch, encourage my students to partake in class productions every month, and every day a pizza party. In my daydreams, my classroom was an episode of The Magic School Bus, I was an Asian Ms. Frizzle, and every day was a new adventure.
In eighth grade, my science teacher allowed me to test the power of the red pen for the first time. He selected three or four students out of his class based on the quality of their notebooks, and let the students essentially go through their peers’ notebooks, crossing out incorrect information and writing in the correct answer. When I was selected, I initially tried to give my peers some leeway with their assignments, but with every mark I made, I found myself feeling giddy. And that was when I realized that if I enjoyed finding errors, perhaps I shouldn’t be a teacher after all.
Having been focused on becoming a teacher for so many years, I wasn’t certain about which major to choose when I came to UC Irvine, so I, like so many of my dorm-mates in our freshman year of college, decided to remain an Undecided/Undeclared student. I jumped from classes in biology to those in sociology and humanities in my first year, exploring different options and enjoying the dorm life. By the end of my second year, I finally found my academic focus: English and Sociology. Without even realizing it, I had taken classes for those two majors ever since my first quarter at UC Irvine.
About a year after I graduated from UC Irvine with a double major in English and Sociology, I obtained a position as the Receptionist and Scheduling Coordinator at the Department of Education. On a daily basis, I now help both undergraduates in the Education minor and college graduates who are looking into the Master of Arts in Teaching and/or the teacher credential programs to discover if this will be their career, and I provide them with information about the necessary steps to obtain their goals. Although I no longer see myself in a teaching career, I am now able to help others who do want to become teachers find their path, and I know that my 5th grade self is still enthusiastic about the outcome.
