Running head: Autobiographical Essay 1

Autobiographical Essay

Cindy Ann Sellman

College of Western Idaho

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Autobiographical Essay

Some of us know from an early age what we want to do with our life, and we follow a

specific pathway to achieve it. Some of us know what we want to do, but life takes a detour and

leads us down a different path that allows you a different view and appreciation on what your

dream is. I’m lucky enough to say that I have had life experiences that have allowed me the

realization that the dream that was instilled in me when I was a child is still the dream and the

correct pathway for me in life.

Educational Background

I attended school back in the mid 1970’s and 80’s when the schools were set up

differently than they are now. My first years of education were spent between a couple of

different schools here in Nampa, and then I was lucky enough to attend both of our junior high

schools due to our moving part way through my educational process. Nampa High School was

the only high school that Nampa had at that time. Back then we didn’t have the options to track

to specific occupation or take dual credit classes through the college like the students have now.

Back then we had our core subjects and some electives that are dated and many of them are not

even offered in today’s school system. I can say with certainty that high school did not prepare

me for what was to come for me in college when I went in 1989.

There was one thing in my education that was always a constant, that was an incredible

admiration for my teachers, specifically, Mrs. Vestal my second-grade teacher. She was caring,

compassionate, she had a very warm and nurturing demeanor and she made learning fun. I

remember in her classroom we would have a student of the week and how she went out of her

way to make that student feel extra special. There was something from that experience with her
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in second grade that always stayed with me, something that inspired me to want to be like her. I

always viewed teachers different after my time in her classroom; sometimes I was let down, but I

always had the same resolve of not just being a teacher, but being a teacher that made that extra

effort to reach their students. I’m pretty sure she has no idea she impacted me in such a way, but

she did.

I pursued my dream of being a teacher right after graduation from high school and

attended Boise State University but was truly ill prepared for what was really needed to be a

successful college student. I took time away from school and came back and visited when I was

more settled as an adult and started back down my pathway at BSU to earn my degree. During

that time my life took a major shift and I moved across the country to Florida. I was able to

finish up my semester and then move away with the thoughts that I would pick back up when I

was settled in my new location, unfortunately that never happened.

Currently I am in my last full semester here at CWI but won’t be graduating due to a

class schedule issue. In the Fall 2020 session I will start the progression towards my BA at

Boise State University while continuing to work to provide for my family. Unlike a lot of

students, I have the privilege of drawing not just upon my education, but my life experiences.

Work History Service and/or Extracurricular Activities

I have been a part of the workforce for over 30 years now. I have had the ability to

experience a few different job pathways and several volunteering opportunities allowing me to

gather knowledge and life experience that cannot be taught in school. One thing that has been a

constant is I have always gravitated towards roles that allowed me to have a more personal

relationship with my coworkers and found myself working in Human Resources more than any

other role.
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Having the opportunity to work one on one with employees who come from various

backgrounds and ethnicities has brought me into contact with finding creative ways to help our

them with continued employment. I have spent a great deal of time working in the construction

industry, and the labor force is a bit on the rougher side than your typical office worker. With

that, we experienced a lot of issues with employees having difficulties getting to work or legal

issues that required a creative work around for them to maintain stable employment and a

continued paycheck.

I was privileged in my most recent position to work with our apprenticeship program and

teaching new apprentices the skills of roofing. Being hands on and active with our employees

daily allowed me to catch the employees that were struggling in a certain area so that we could

address those skills more accurately. For instance, we had a gentleman who struggled with the

basics of shingling. Seeing his written and practical testing scores allowed me to see that we

needed to spend more time with him on this task and find a way to teach him this that worked for

him. After sitting and talking with the employee for a short period of time and asking a few

questions we were able to find a method of teaching that worked with how he learned.

There are times that language was a barrier as we had a great deal of limited English

proficiency (LEP) amongst our Hispanic employee population. The simplest conversations

ended up looking like a game of charades or sometimes end up with things being drawn out. I

often felt as if I failed the employees because I couldn’t communicate with them as effective as I

could their English-speaking co-workers. I would often rely upon other bilingual employees to

be there during conversations or sometimes using their spouse or children, depending on the

situation. This would sometimes present a challenge when building the work crews; needing to
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make sure that someone was bilingual on the crew in order to communicate to our employees

who couldn’t speak English.

Having the first hand of experience of trying effectively to communicate with our

employees will help me when it comes to understanding that struggle that our ESL students are

going through. Sometimes extra steps need to be taken to make sure that you are giving that

employee, and in this case, they student, all the tools that they need to be successful. With the

ESL students that would look like more time with a teacher who was able to communicate with

them in both their native language and help the with their English language abilities. For me in

an HR role it was me signing for online language course to learn to speak Spanish so I could be a

better resource to my employees.

During my late teens and early adulthood, I was blessed with the opportunity to work

with mentally challenged adults as a counselor at summer camp. With my best-friends’ brother

having been born with Down’s Syndrome, her entire family was very active with the

handicapped community and Special Olympics. Being around her meant being around people

who at that time were still shunned to separate rooms for schools or institutions. It was an

amazing opportunity and one that I will always cherish. One summer I was a counselor at a

summer camp for disabled adults for a week. The campers that went were higher functioning,

but still needed support to achieve some tasks. Having the experience to be there to assist them

through various challenges throughout the day was one that taught me the rewards of seeing

beyond the physical limitations and seeing the true beauty and soul of a person.

After working in the workforce for as long as I have, in various positions in around the

country, it just reinforces what I’ve always known, is that my heart is that of a teacher. The life

experiences I have gathered will allow me to be more empathetic to my students. I’m also
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excited for sharing with a generation how things have evolved, giving them the benefit of how

information is applied in real life settings, and understanding the challenges that they will

experience in life after graduation.

Ethics Reasoning in Education

Since I am a bit older than most of my classmates, I imagine my routines in life are vastly

different than them. One thing that is important to me is keeping up to date with current events

that impact me, and by that, I mean watching the local news. I have been most fascinated this

winter as I’ve watched as the Idaho Common Core Curriculum being discussed and decisions on

whether that they will be adopted for future years. One event has troubled me greatly, that is the

decision to exclude Climate Change in our Science Standards that are going to be taught.

Now, I’m a person who tends to have good morals, I like to think I lead a virtuous life,

but I am deeply troubled when we make decisions that are more damaging than they are good.

Our decision to remove Climate Change from the curriculum is one that I have issues with.

Now, from a Utilitarianism point of view, we are doing a great disservice to our students by not

equipping them with everything that need in order to make decisions that are for the betterment

of everyone, not just themselves. Isn’t the idea to have higher educated individuals be able to

tackle the issues and find changes? Isn’t taking away the curriculum on that very thing failing

the student? But I also must think about how Natural Law comes to play in the decisions that

we make. Some of the decisions we make require us a to make decisions that are harmful in

some areas, but it’s God’s will and therefore Natural Law and what should naturally occur.

Now one can argue that Climate Change exists, and one can claim that it doesn’t

depending upon what Ethical thinking they prescribe to. There are some that believe that we

have no real proof of how things were a thousand years ago let alone a million years ago, so that
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the occurrence we are experiencing now are part of what has always been and is cyclic. There

are others that subscribe to the notion that Climate Change is caused by humankind and requires

human interaction to change in order to slow and reverse the progress. This means that the

present way that we do things needs to change. However, to remove something from our

curriculum that has a direct impact on the livelihood of so many takes the ability for our students

to make informed decisions on something that is a major and current topic of scientific and

public debate. Or maybe they feel the people who made these decisions have an Egocentric

agenda and think that what they truly feel about the topic is what everyone should feel about the

topic. And since they will not be impacted by those decisions so therefore it doesn’t matter if we

teach it or not. I have often wondered about our politicians, but I truly believe that this time they

have it wrong.

We must make decisions that even though they’re hard it’s the right thing to do. When

we remove the necessary information that is required to make an informed decision that is

deceitful. If you want your students to understand and trust you, you must provide them with all

the information in order to make decisions that are right for them. When you do this, you

develop a trust with your students and an environment for critical thinking and learning.

Considerations for Choosing Education as a Career

One thing that I’ve always known is that when I have gone to work for the last 30 years,

it has not in the career field that I’ve always imagined that I would have been in. You know the

saying “If you do what you love for work, you never work a day in your life”? I believe that to

be true for teaching and me. I have continually gone to work every day instead of doing what I

was predestined to do, teach.

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I have a passion for learning new things and a passion for teaching others about what I

have learned. I have always maintained a continual search for knowledge throughout my life.

However, currently, seeking that information is much easier and more current than ever before.

There is an internal satisfaction when I’m able to teach information to someone, and an even

greater satisfaction when that information can provide a worthwhile benefit. My experience of

helping employees during their apprenticeship program during my employment at Upson

Company provided me part of that satisfaction and a reminder that I needed to pursue my

educational goals.

I believe that one of my many attributes that will allow me to be a good teacher is my

ability to understand and be empathetic to my students. Being able to ask the right questions

when needed and quietly observe to gain further information and not jump to rash decisions or

judgements about situations is something that comes very natural to me. I love being around

people and finding ways to enhance and enlighten their days and with teaching, their lives.

What a teacher is in their core is what I am in my core. I have an innate desire to help others

achieve greatness. I believe that we all are capable of whatever we want to accomplish if we

have the correct support system in place, and that is what a teacher is, and that is what I am.

I have often contemplated jobs in the educational field and have made attempts the initial

steps of being a paraprofessional. Being a parent of a teenager, I’ve seen a great deal and have

experienced all twelve grades of school. I know the challenges teachers face of not enough one-

on-one time with their students. Being a para-professional would allow me to be able to be

active part of the students learning and allow the teacher to have personalized time with the

students who required extra help.

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All my life, all of job choices have always put me in the direct line of helping people in

different forms. Having the unique experience of already having a complete other career

pathway under my belt has allowed me to gather knowledge that isn’t taught in school. Being

older has allowed me to understand patience and that sometimes the problem that you see with

someone isn’t the actual problem that needs tackled. Having the ability to be compassionate and

the desire to want others to succeed has allowed me to be a successful in the multitude of roles

that my career path has evolved in. Each one required a focus on understanding others and

teaching them what they needed to be successful.

Professional Goals

This has been a very long journey pursuing my degree. What started in the Fall of 1989

has taken 31 years to get to this point. I have lived a life, raised a family and have had an entire

career in a different field. Now I am embarking on the final steps of my degree to become a

teacher, what I’ve always knew was my true and natural calling.

I am currently enrolled for the 2020 summer semester at Boise State University, pursuing

my Bachelor’s in Education with and endorsement in either STEM or Science. I believe you

should teach what you are most passionate about. I have met with my advisor Brad Coats and

have prepared a plan for success that has me graduating in the Spring of 2021. Having the

support of my advisor, my professors and my family provides me with the support network for

me to be able to achieve my goals at the high standards that are expected of a high-quality

educator.

I have set myself up with scheduling and preparing for the Praxis test and working with

mentoring teachers as well as connecting with middle school that I currently observe at this

semester. Working with different teachers and administrators will allow me to get a well-
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rounded perspective of what the schools and districts are looking for when it comes to

employment opportunities.

Over the next six months my goals are predominately academic. The first is to maintain

my GPA to stay on the Dean’s List as well as Phi Theta Kappa, a great honor that I earned this

semester. I also strive to maintain a 4.0 in my EDU classes and successfully complete the last

sections of Math 095 as well as navigate a shortened summer session of Math 157 at BSU while

continuing to maintain full-time employment.

Due to my previous attempts at college thirty years ago when I wasn’t ready, I am

fighting a grade point deficit where every point in my world counts. It is imperative that I finish

all my classes with the highest grade possible to make up for my inadequacies of my youth.

Being able to finish my classes with a highest grade will allow me to not extend the length of my

education by having to make up classes to reach the minimum GPA needed to reach to be

accepted into the College of Education at BSU and ultimately complete my bachelor’s degree.

I am taking all the steps necessary to set myself for success to complete this semester

with highest grades possible, as well as taking care of the next steps required at BSU. With the

continued cooperation from my current employer and the support from my family and friends, I

should be able to take successfully navigate the rest of spring semester and my first semester

back at BSU.

I am excited to be finishing my time at CWI and starting on my next and final steps of a

very long journey. Knowing that my goal is well within sight and isn’t just a dream is exciting

and motivating. I can’t wait for the next steps to start and to be able to live the adage of “If you

love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.”