Personal Narrative: My Career As An FFA Student

Something such as returning back to school was long gone and in my past goals. After a couple of years I never thought I would end up going back to school since everything that I wanted was going good and according to plan. However sometimes we are faced with tough situations where we must find other resources in order to improve and better ourselves. Going back to school was one of the most important and wise decisions that I have ever made. Finding well-qualified candidates for a job or career nowadays is a challenge, especially in the field that I am currently in; law enforcement.

Whether directing a choir, directing a musical or teaching college level courses, my desire is to educate those who have entrusted their education into my hands. Serving in different areas of ministry, my philosophy was always to educate others. As a funeral director, I had the opportunity to help guide families through one of the most difficult times. I could have continued serving in the capacity; however, I wanted people everywhere to experience a first class funeral director. As a result, I began my journey as a funeral service education instructor.

I joined the National FFA Organization March of my sophomore year in 2015. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, just that my teacher needed another participant for the Vet Science CDE. I agreed to come to practice and eventually compete at the state contest. This was the beginning of my FFA career. We won the state contest, and worked through the summer to head to National Convention that fall and finish with a gold-rating.

An incident occurred while I was attending the VA for a rotation and it was brought to my attention that I violated a policy. The LSUA student was starting the exam and I cannot fully remember what happened, but she either clipped anatomy or didn’t oblique enough and I thought that I was being helpful by saying that I would do it and take over the exam but I have realized that when I started to take over the LSUA student marker was still on the exam. The LSUA student ended up finishing the exam and I think that I had went to do another exam at the time. When her instructor checked her images, she may have asked why she repeated or who told her to repeat the image and she said my name.

Approaching Prairie View A&M University was very exciting for me because my high school mentor, Ms. Hill-Jones, graduated from PVAMU and shared amazing stories with me about the students and staff. Hearing such great stories about the school my expectations were high, so once I arrived to the school and got situated I expected to be greeted by the staff but what I received was a nice to meet you and goodbye. My disappointment level started to rise then after that I began to walk to the café or msc as they call it ; when I entered I was greeted by this kind old woman, “How you doing young man?” she said really sluggish. I replied with a simple fine then happen to tell the lady my entire situation then she respond enthusiastically, “Honey, You’ve been here for less than a day give it time baby.”

I graduated back in 2013 from a pretty decent school district. During high school I wasn’t an A student or a B student, I just did what I needed in order to pass. Once I got to my junior of high school I started taking things more seriously, I started making A’s and B’s. Once my senior year started the pressure was on. Everyone asking “what college are you thinking about attending?”

The Honors College path has five different pathways which include: undergraduate research, study aboard, service learning, internships, and campus leadership. The two pathways that I will incorporate into my four years here at Western are service learning and internships. I have a love for helping the people not only in my community, but anywhere I can help. For my major, I will have to do internships and clinical rotations to obtain my degree. Even though I am only choosing two, I believe that they all may cross my path in the four years here at Western.

I first heard of the Trailblazer Collegiate Academy during my freshman year enrollment. The idea of taking college classes at a community college while still in high school was appealing to me because my current coursework took no effort to complete and I wanted a challenge. Once I was a sophomore, I began looking into it more seriously. If I wanted to apply for the Academy, I had a short window of time to do so. After discussing it with my counselor I learned that my classes I took with the community college would factor into my GPA at the high school level.

Looking into the future is what I do most on my free time. Thinking about what career plans I have for myself, where exactly I would like to be and how far I’m going to get. Going to college was the best decision I’ve made. Throughout my whole college experience, I want to work as hard as I can and as much as I can, to achieve an overall great life for myself and my future family. That being said, my career path that I have chosen is, to become a Physical therapist assistant.

As an upcoming freshman in college I have realized many things looking back at my high school career, and home life outside of school. I use to wish for time to speed up so I could hurry and become my own person, a young adult and now I will truly miss it but I know my time was well spent because I used it wisely by partaking in opportunities to better myself, and spending my time wisely In and outside of school. I can truly say I tried all throughout school to find new ways to get involved with my school, community, and people around me.

Personal Statement- Stephanie Olivera Growing up I was always the odd one in our family. When my parents started having children, they did not plan us very well. I am 5 years younger than my older brother, 4 years younger than my sister and 8 years older than my younger brother. I was the child that did not have anyone to "play" with, and I grew accustomed to being alone.