Introduction

I was born into a military family so I have lived in seven different places over twenty-one years, but I consider Connecticut to be home. My mother and my aunt are both graduates of the Wheelock education program, which is how I heard of the school. I chose to come here for my undergraduate experience because of its small size and location in a city. I have a major in Humanities with a focus in Literature, and a professional major in Elementary Education. Reading has always been my passion, and I hope that I will one day be able to instill that same love of literature in my students. I have had multiple opportunities over the course of my Wheelock career to see how education can make a difference in a child's life. I was a member of the Jumpstart program my freshmen year and spent 300 hours working one-on-one with two different partner children to get them ready for kindergarten. During my junior year I was fortunate enough to travel to Northern Ireland with Professor Diane Levin and seven other Wheelock students to study the peace efforts being made in schools there and their effect on the students. I completed my pre-practicum in a second grade classroom at the Amos A. Lawrence School in Brookline. My full-time practicum took place at the Joseph Lee Elementary School in Dorchester in a fourth and fifth grade setting. These experiences have made me realize that I love working with the older students, and my passion lies in teaching the upper elementary grades. After graduation, I will be enrolling in a Masters of Science in Integrated Elementary and Special Education program here at Wheelock, and hope to have my own classroom here in Boston.