Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Just Tore Up These Essay Questions!


How have you translated professional opportunities, classes, or life experiences into your work?

My favorite Transcendentalist advocated for life being “a journey, not a destination.” With a bachelors degree and one year of teaching added to my resume, this is only the beginning! I have the drive to master any discipline I decide, but why choose just one? With such vast opportunities I continue my quest for knowledge, and with the aid of professional development and higher education my journey is destined to make a difference!

I contribute much of the recent improvements made to my pedagogical and environmental approaches to my experience with Laurel Clark's Earth Camp for Educators, a collaboration of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the University of Arizona College of Science which provided over 90 hours of professional development. From these workshops, I tweaked my philosophy on teaching to always include an exploratory piece. All of my lesson plans will be developed with whole-body learning in mind and simulate real-life scientific approaches. Learning about science will be applicable to my students' personal lives while results of experiments will call for action.

With respect to human relations, I have come to value networking with like-minded individuals who share my passions for the Earth, her people, and her sciences. Through these critical contacts lie the bridges needed to explore opportunities in evolving my personal doctrine, content knowledge and communication skills.

Every life experience fuels my desire to make a real change, so fittingly Emerson will have the last words: “Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing.”


How do you think this experience will benefit your personal life, professional life and your community?

As a child I spent all of my free time outdoors collecting rocks and raising plants from seeds. Twenty years later my favorite necklace is my Azurite rock, I have a tattoo of a tree on my back, and love organic food. The point of this little anecdote is that I will always have a spiritual connection to nature and a deep yearning to be a part of this movement in saving our Earth. The opportunities Earth Expeditions offers ignite my soul and I cannot think of a better way to spend the next three summers.

My passions guide me in fulfilling my purpose, which connect personal with professional. I am on a journey to search out jobs which are inclusive of both. The Global Field Program will assist in this quest by providing opportunities to work on meaningful, long-term goals. Eventually the GFP will be a linchpin in attaining my aspirations: first, to be an active participant in environmental education, and second, to become an entrepreneur in the field of sustainability.

Along with personal and professional contributions, the GFP will provide means to make a difference in the last integral part of my life—community. Through a well-rounded awareness of our surrounding ecosystems and the vital elements that affect biodiversity, I will gain the background knowledge needed to dedicate my work to promoting conservation. Through my adventures with Earth Expeditions I will attain essential tools needed to engage with local communities and deepen public interest in science and conservation.

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