Why Education?

By: Riss Willwerth

Going through Junior year it felt like every one of my peers knew what they wanted to do with their life. Everything about High School seemed to be leading us to answer the question that we have contemplated our whole lives; What do we want to be when we grow up? And the answers bring given were not ballerina, astronaut and movie star anymore.

I had some interests and things I was curious about, but nothing that was really sticking in my mind like glue. All I knew is that whatever I did in life, I wanted to help others and I wanted to be extremely passionate about my work. Mental Illness was something that fascinated me but 12 years of schooling to become a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist was not going to work for me. The reason behind human behavior and what triggers people to act a certain way was interesting as well but I didn’t really want to go into Sociology and didn’t know what I wanted to do with that degree.

A class I was taking junior year called “Connecting” where I worked in a placement class helping special needs students required multiple outside volunteer activities per trimester. This was a class I loved and had a strong connection too but hadn’t debated studying Special Education. I had worked in kindergarten class rooms, high school and 5th grade so I had gotten a wide variety of experience with different ages. But I hadn’t worked with ages over high school age, that was something that made me a bit uncomfortable something I wasn’t really used to and didn’t know how it would be.

My volunteer activity for that trimester ended up being helping out at a Special Olympics track and field event. The event was open to kids and adults of all ages, although these events were often for kids in high school and persons outside schooling to do. I was shocked to discover how easy it was to talk and communicate and be around older people with disabilities. Once I got over my initial fear I had a great time.

Now here is the cliché part of the story. The next day I woke up and I just knew. I knew that this was what I wanted to go into. Overall this experience was very beneficial to me because I learned a lot about myself and how to work with others different and older than me. This is what I wanted to study and be a part of for the rest of my life. That day volunteering was a huge turning point for me I will never forget. I wanted to help people of all ages and most importantly I wanted to teach and I have been stuck on this major ever since.