Jordan Wanago

Scholarship Essay
4/4/2018

Why I Want To Be a Teacher

I want to become a teacher to be able to make a positive difference on the future of children. For
me, it is a great fulfilling challenge, stimulating the next generation to become lifelong learners. I
have always been grateful to the educational system for implanting values in me and at this
juncture, I feel I should contribute what I have learned and experienced over the years. This way
I will be paying back and at the same time can fulfill my desire of enhancing the education
system. I can’t think of any job as important to society as teaching. I have always loved to give
young people the best start in life. Being a goal-oriented person with tons of patience, I am sure I
will be able to gel with kids and train them in the required subjects with utmost care and concern
for achieving the educational goals. Interacting with children is great. Be it on educational
grounds or recreational activities, it is a lot more fun interacting and learning with children.
The ability of loving children is in fact the most important, and the ability to make a difference in
a child. I once heard, “You have in your hands the power to influence and mold a student's mind.
You have within you the capacity to inspire in the child a love for learning, to keep an open mind
and to keep questioning. You have the ability to promote confidence, stir thinking and awaken
dreams.” To me a teacher is like no other. You can change a student by how you teach, how you
react to others when they speak. A student can follow in your footsteps because of how you
taught something or what you did to accomplish your dreams. I believe making a difference in
one’s life means the world to me, and just seeing a smile on a child’s face every time they walk
through the classroom door makes you see that they enjoy being with you.
In my Secondary school, there has been one person who really influenced me to want to be a
teacher; he encouraged me to strive for the best and exceed in what my dreams. It was a Head
teacher in Secondary that told me, “I believe one day you will become a good teacher, you have
the ability to do things that I don’t see in many teenagers at this point in life.” What she said
really made me think hard, of what I could do to help the world. She influenced me to follow in
her footsteps and make a difference, just as she did to me. She made a difference in my life and
in return that’s what I would like to do to others.