It is my belief that what occurs outside of the classroom can be just as impactful as what happens in the classroom. This belief stands true for students in k-12, preservice teachers, all the way up to full time professional educators. For the k-12 students, going beyond the classroom by joining clubs or doing sports can create a sense of belongingness or accomplishment and make the student want to be in school. For preservice teachers, I see it as a necessity to go beyond the classroom as there are not enough hours in classroom to learn everything that can be learned to be ready to teach. Going beyond the classroom for preservice teachers can be taking on leadership roles in clubs, attending EdCamps, or anything else to develop as a leader. For professional educators, it's important to know that learning doesn't stop when you where that cap and gown at graduation. Education is constantly evolving and keeping up with it will give students a better chance at succeeding.
EdCamp
To go beyond the classroom and grow as a preservice teacher, I decided to attend my first EdCamp in Spring of 2019 at Grove City College. While at the EdCamp, I made sure to participate as much as I could in order to grow as an educator. This participation clearly did not go unnoticed as at the end of the EdCamp I was asked if I would be a lead-learner for the following year; I had no option but to accept this opportunity. For EdCamp GCC 2020 I will be a lead learner, meaning that I help organize the EdCamp leading up to it, then I will facilitate discussion on the day of. I view this as a great way to grow as an educator and learn from others while sharing my own ideas. These EdCamps are something that I plan to continue throughout my career as an educator to continue learning even after college.
Clubs on Campus
While studying in college, there are many opportunities to join clubs and become involved in what you love, both within and outside of your major. I decided to choose to join a few clubs, some within my major and some that I just enjoy. Just for the fun of it and to help me grow personally, I joined the YSU Running Club as well as the YSU Men's Volleyball Club. I joined these just because I love sports and I believe that sports help students. To go along with my studies, I also joined the YSU Spanish Club as I am minoring in Spanish. After being a member for just one semester, I was asked to become the Spanish Club President. I had to take this opportunity as I knew that it would help me grow in learning the language as well as grow in being able to teach the language to other students. In the Spring of 2020, I was elected to serve as a representative on Student Government Association, which is discussed in further detail later on this page.
Spanish
To go along with my major in math and science education, I decided that I wanted to do more. I decided to minor in Spanish. I initially planned on taking 2 summer Spanish courses to meet a language requirement, then decided that I was close enough, so I would do 5 more classes to get the minor so that I would have something to show for meeting the requirement. During my two years of studying Spanish, I became president of the YSU Spanish Club, a Spanish tutor in the Language Learning Resource Center on campus, and had the opportunity to co-teach AP Spanish 3 at Ursuline High School, a private school in Youngstown, Ohio. My Spanish classes were probably my most difficult classes during my time at YSU as I was trying to complete an entire minor with no background in only two years. Going all-out with Spanish by taking on responsibilities outside of my classes helped me grow in the language and as a leader outside of the language. As Spanish Club president, i helped organize the YSU International Languages Mardi Gras Ball, hosted an international student coffee hour gathering, organized participation in Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations, led a club trip to the Cleveland International Film Festival, all while organizing and running weekly club meetings. I even managed to bring our club membership from 5 members in the Spring of 2019 up to over 20 members in the Spring of 2020.
Student Government Associaton
In the Spring 2020 semester, I was elected to serve on Student Government Association as a representative for the college of education at YSU. As a representative, I attended biweekly full body meetings where I voted on organization funding bills. During weeks when there were not full body meetings, I attended academic life committee meetings where we discussed ways to better improve the academic experience for students on campus. As a representative of the academic experience committee, I rallied to have the YSU Scholarship Foundation send denial letters to any student who applied for YSU Foundation scholarships but was not chosen. The reason that I rallied for this change was because students often apply for scholarships then never hear back, making them less likely to apply in the future. This small change over time is expected to increase upper division applicants for scholarships. During the full body meetings, I had the opportunity to ask representatives of student organizations for more details about the reason for their funding request before voting.