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Essays

What does the future hold?
Goal Reflection Essay
 

When I was hired for my first teaching position, the thought of continuing my education as a lifelong learner hadn’t really crossed my mind.  Once I began to establish myself as a more experienced teacher and grew upon my beliefs, I started to think about what it would take for me to go back to school.  It was after a pay decrease and a long pay freeze that I had really considered it.  To be honest, my decision to go back to school wasn’t heavily dependent on receiving any kind of pay increase; it was mostly due to an uncertainty in my lifelong goals.  After I had begun coaching and teaching within my first few years, I started to consider the amount of passion I really had for athletics.  I had found that I wanted to be more involved with athletics than just being a coach. I really found myself having thoughts about how cool it would be to be an athletic director at the recreational, high school, or college level. Therefore, when I had looked into Michigan State University’s graduate degree programs I found what I thought would be the perfect program for me.  I liked the Masters of Arts in Education (MAED) program because I could choose a specialization of Sports Leadership and Coaching, while taking electives in mathematics education to help me decide whether teaching math or being an athletic director was the better choice for me.

 

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Future
Synthesis
Goals
Past, Present, & Future
Future Learning Goals Essay
 

 

I would like to start by saying how the past and present have helped shaped where I want my future to lead.  In the past I was actively involved in many different sports up until high school and then specialized in cheerleading in college.  As I grew older, participating wasn’t as easy as it had been in the past, so I ventured into a new role, coaching.  I have been coaching cheerleading and gymnastics for the past few years.  It is because of these experiences that I see a future as an athletic director.  Obviously, transitioning into a new career field is never easy, but taking steps and setting goals to lead into that direction will help me reach my dreams faster.  Completing my master’s degree with a specialization in Sports Leadership and Coaching has definitely helped me gain significantly more knowledge than I had before starting the program.  I look forward to using this knowledge and building on it as I continue my track as a life-long learner.  I am definitely very far from knowing as much as possible to be an athletic director, but there are a few steps that I would like to take in the near future to help me expand on my knowledge.  If I want to be a successful and qualified candidate I need to look into professional development opportunities to expand my credentials and knowledge, begin networking with other athletic directors and schools, and to start gaining some experience in athletic directing.

 

 

Looking Back on How I Got Here
Synthesis Essay
 

As a freshman, starting my undergraduate degree, this was the first of many college classes that I would be taking.  I was excited to start this new journey because I had always loved school and learning, but was nervous that I didn’t have a plan on where this journey would lead.  I started my first year of college with an undecided major taking higher level math classes, education classes, and prerequisite classes for pharmacy school to help me decide what path would be best for me.  Into my second year of college I had decided that being a high school math teacher was the route that I wanted to pursue.  In between this time and graduation I also considered becoming an actuary so I took the classes need to specialize in this area too.  After graduation I had made the decision and commitment to pursue the teacher preparation program at Michigan State, which started my professional career as an educator and life-long learner.

 

 

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