My Lumiere Moment
Growing up I always knew I wanted to either be a doctor, lawyer, or teacher. Since being at DePaul I feel like I have gone through all three of these options. Looking back now I can realize that I always knew that being a teacher was going to be the job for me. Growing up I loved playing teacher. My mom is a teacher so I feel like I grew up in the classroom. For as long as I can remember I used to go to school with my mom and get to play in her classroom. I used to love helping my mom grade papers. Listening to my mom talk about her days at work is what pushed me to wanting to be a teacher.
Being a teacher ended up leaving my mind for a while. Once I was in high school and everyone was talking about what they were going to be I realized I had no idea what I wanted to do. Once it was time to apply to college I did not know what major I was going to put down. Everyone around me seemed like they knew what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives. Having to choose this at 17 scared me a lot. I think I ended up applying to every college as a different major, none of them being teaching. I ended up choosing to come to DePaul at the very last minute. I chose it because it was closest to home while also having good programs as well.
My journey at DePaul started on zoom. My first school year at DePaul was 2020–2021. That entire year DePaul was online. When I started my education I was a Health Sciences major. I knew I wanted a job where I was helping people. I thought I would be either a doctor or a nurse. I started off freshman year taking Biology and Chemistry. After the first quarter I realized that I just wasn’t a fan of science. I continued with it next quarter because I was scared of changing majors and feeling like I would be disappointing my parents. After my second quarter I realized that I couldn’t continue on being a Health Sciences major because I didn’t enjoy it. I ended up changing my major to psychology for that last quarter. However, I knew that the major wasn’t really for me but I was just too scared to fully change out of the College of Science and Health. However, throughout my entire freshman year I had been tutoring on zoom through the Education and Counseling Center in the College of Education. The summer between my freshman and sophomore year I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted my major to be when I started back up at school. That summer I worked at a summer camp with a group of students with disabilities. This would turn out to be my lumiere moment!
That summer I got to experience working with students of all ages with disabilities. I began to realize that I really enjoyed this and I could see myself doing this as a career. I remember going home and telling my mom “I think I want to be a Special Education teacher”. I remember her laughing and saying that she knew all along that I would become a teacher just like her. I remember being a little upset at first. If she knew I had all the characteristics to be a teacher and she thought I could be a good one why hadn’t she said anything before. She told me she didn’t want to push me into anything and she had wanted me to come to the conclusion on my own. I was a little annoyed but understood her reasoning as well. I remember switching my major to Special Education and being excited to tell my parents. They were both happy for me and I realized all they truly want for me is to be happy.
When I started back at DePaul for sophomore year I started in a new community, the College of Education. However, that wasn’t the only new community I had. During my freshman year I had done a virtual service immersion trip. After that I was invited to apply to be a Vincentian Service Scholar and I ended up getting it! I remember being excited about getting the scholarship but worried about what I would have to do. I had to take a PAX class with the rest of my cohort which I really enjoyed. It was a great class to learn some of the background history of Vinny and Louise. I also made so many great friends in this class. We got to go on a service day with just this class which was so much fun. We went to the Englewood Gardens to do work there and then all went to eat afterwards. Being in this community has allowed me to continue to do service during my time at DePaul.
During my sophomore year at DePaul I applied to be a Golden Apple Scholar. Their mission is to inspire, develop and support teacher excellence in Illinois, especially in schools of need. I really connected with their mission so I knew it was something I was interested in being involved with. I was accepted into this program and got to meet a ton of other college students who had the same mission and determination as me. Going into education right now can be a little frustrating so it’s nice to have a group of people I can talk to about these frustrations I have. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to the education system especially in Chicago. I want to become more involved in these movements.
During this past Spring break I got to travel to Paris with other student leaders who were a part of the Vincentian Heritage Tour. While there I got to learn a lot about how Vincent and Louise fought for the injustices that they saw. Louise herself fought for educational rights for all so I hope to be able to emulate her and continue this fight for fair and equal education for all.
