2nd Quarter, 2008
Liberal Arts Scholarship Winner
Anna Marie Daley
“I’ve gained a broad perspective and appreciation for the world around me by studying liberal arts. This experience motivates me to continue pursuing an education to eventually become a teacher. And by teaching future students, I am equipped to give back to my community the education that a liberal arts degree and this scholarship have provided for me.”
A Portion of Anna Marie’s Winning Essay:
I chose Liberal Arts with a concentration in English because I love to appreciate and learn about different acadamic areas in relation to the world around me. As a young girl, I was always fascinated with books. On several occassions at high school, I would ask my teachers that instead of returning the books to them at the end of the year, if I would be able to keep them. My preference for books wasn’t specific, I liked to read Math, Science, History and English books.
When I was employed at a Baptist church, they had free religious books that I collected as well as read. On the weekends, I’d go to Silas Bronson Library and gain further knowledge of subjects I had never come across. Currently I am a student at Naugatuck Valley Community Collge and I have collected and studied many of the books I’ve bought there.
I don’t like the idea of majoring in a specific area, such as engineering, when I have the option of learning multiple disciplines all at the same time during my undergradute studies. And even though I plan on focusing on English as a Liberal Arts major, I still will increase my understanding of other subjects by other means.
By gaining a degree in English, I will have writing profiicency and an increased reading comprehension, skills that apply not only to my degree program but that are valuable for employement, working with others, and especially the certificate I hope to gain as an English teacher.
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My passion for reading has allowed me to suceed in every class at college. People tend to say that they are good at one subject and poor at another. But I don’t relate to them. The classes I’ve taken in Composition, British Literature, American literature, Technical Writing, Sociology, Courtship- Marriage and Sexuality, Spanish, Philosophy, Music, Algebra, American and Western History, Communications, Biology, and Health have proved to be exciting as well as challenging.
British Literature, one of my favorites, allowed me to learn about British history and the writers during that time period who wrote novels illustrating their historical events. Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist writer who protested for women’s equality in civil, domestic, and social life in the 1980’s. She wanted to eliminate women’s inequality.
Wollstonecraft was one of the first women to protest these rights in her books and discussions with men who opposed feminism. I think this is interesting considering women now have increased their rights in those areas and are now holding positions in government and other employement opportunities previously dominated by men. It is very important for others and myself to learn about British Literature so we can understand that women’s liberation did not come spontaneously. I want to continue learning British literature to be able to teach future students about writers who played a role in the liberation of not only women, but both men and women’s increasing privileges.
Reading English or any other subject can be very rewarding. No matter what college course I have, reading is a must for success. I am training myself to read faster with increased comprehension so I’ll be successful at college. English especially has helped me to do this since it requires many stories and poems to be read in a short amount of time. I feel that if I could succeed in English and earn high grades, which I do, I will be competent in other areas even though the subject is different.
For example, in English I read fictional/nonfictional stories while philosophy teaches about real life thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. One of the main components to success in both of these classes would be to write good papers.
If I didn’t perfect my writing skills in English it would be impossible for me to write exemplary philosohy papers. But by having those skills, my English course complements philosophy class. The Sociology of the Family has been a beneficial course by teaching different aspects of family life.
One thing that I was always curious about was the statistic, “half of all marriages end in divorce”. Marriage seems to be one of the most cherished endevours for young adults. But what they don’t know or lack to understand is that most marriages fail due to confict that is not resolved properly due to ineffective problem solving skills.
Also, children, increasingly thought of to bring happiness to marriage, are one of the primary reasons for a decline in marital satisfaction. They offer challenges to parents who have never experienced them before. As a result of time- consuming child rearing, parents end up spending less time with each other. Spouses can become irritated with disobedient children who want to stay up too late at night and make messes on the kitchen floor. Suprisingly 65% of Americans approve of spanking. And as more time is spent with child rearing, the husband and wife become separated as their need for intimacy is not shown. Although there are some exceptions, most spouses divorce as a result. Marriages also end because of financial differences, fidelity, lack of caring for one’s spouse, and their annoying habits.
By learning about why marriage fails, I can make informed choices of whether or not I want to marry. I can also tell others, especially my friends about the common misconceptions held about marriage. These include the myths that happily people don’t have conflict and that sex is the greatest predictor of marital satisfaction.
If I ever do find a partner, I’ll be be better able to handle conflict by the information I got from this sociology course. These tips include effective communication, unending intimacy, honesty and remaining faithful. Sociology taught me things I never knew, things I would possilbly never know if I had limited my studies to a particular field. Learning about Marriage and the family took me to a new level regarding relationships and what love really means.
Immigration is increasing in the USA as foreigners seek to come to America for a better life. Most of the immigrants speak a native language. Spanish is a very common one. I’ve always had the desire to translate Puerto Rican peoples conversations. An opportunity came through my exposure to two levels of of Spanish classes. Those classes were very valuable to me not only in taking away the curiousity of what is spoken by Spanish people, but they would be valuable in a teaching career where many students speak a second language.
Even though I would like to teach English, Spanish courses would be a great background to help Spanish students get further acquainted with the English language. Knowing what Spanish people say would give me better leverage to help them learn the English language as opposed to someone who has no academic knowlege of spanish. Therefore I am at more of an advantage for teaching spanish students as well as a community of Spanish speakers how to learn English along with other subjects I’ve come across. The Spanish courses I’ve taken have allowed me to take part in helping Immigrants.
Communication is one of the most prevalent means for everyday interactions. I’ve talked with people who’ve gotten fired from their jobs simply because of miscommunication or not enough of it- either with their boss or customers. But why does this happen, I asked myself? The world needs to learn how to communicate effectively especially on the job where it is most crucial.
In my communications class I performed presentations on health-related fitness, the relationship between parents and children, and study skills to have the opportunity to practice speaking and interacting with classmates and to get critiqued by my professor. Those presentations were not just learning experiences for the students but practice for real world success in my interactions with people both at home and on the job.
One of the key lessons I learned in communicaitons which was applied to the real-world was that no matter how much you know about a certain topic, it you’re unable to communicate it to others so they can undrestand it, it’s useless. Methods I learned when doing those presentations was to ask my classmates questions so they understood my subject.
For example, if I said basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, was a non-melanoma skin cancer, most people wouldn’t have a clue what non-melanoma means. Asking them if they knew offers them and I a chance for effective communication. I would tell them that that non-melanoma means it doesn’t cause tumors. This is very similar to an employement sitiuation, specifically in my intended teaching career. I would need to ensure that my students understand my lectures so that they’ll be able to pass the class, learn about english writers and how to write.
And by communicating English literature/writing to them in an effective way by the skills I’ve gained in the Communications class, I will equip future children with long lasting writing and reading skills applicable to any emloyement field.
I’ve taken Biology class in the past semester and learning about global warming was a thought provoking and life changing event. I was scared when my teacher said that the present generation would have to face increased heat production onthe Earths atmosphere due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases. It encouraged me to become more of an informed citizen. I was able to make changes in my lifestyle to decrease the negative effects of global warming.
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