11th Grade

This year at the Dayton STEM School I have grown a lot in my ability to persist through difficulties. The workload, the level of difficulty, and the quality of teaching experienced this year has been different than any other year at STEM. Because I had more work to do and this work was difficult at times for me to understand, I have had to apply myself more to school. In addition to this, some of the teachers didn’t provide guidance or really expand on concepts very well. Instead of giving up, like I wanted to at certain points, I pushed through it. For example, when we were studying chapter 7 in math class I was completely lost. I asked my peers for help and worked with my dad to try and understand the chapter. Through this, some progress was made but I still struggled. It was at this point that my mom recommended I go to a tutor. At first I said no, but as the lack of understanding in class increased I agreed to go to a math tutor. Through meeting with the tutor I was able to greatly increase my understanding in math class and I was able to get an A in that unit. This persistence in pursuing help in math has solidified the importance of persisting through difficult situations. As my career at STEM continues, I know I will encounter challenges. These challenges could be as simple as confusion about a topic discussed in class or could be larger, more important projects assigned. Regardless of the challenge, I will remember how I pushed through the difficulties in this experience and apply this growth in time management and priorities to these problems. I can also apply this growth to working towards improving my ACT score. The first time I took the ACT I got a pretty good score, but I wanted to do better. I attend study sessions with a tutor to learn techniques to improve my score. This involves investing a lot of time taking practice tests and meeting with the tutor, but I know this persistence will pay of (literally). Problems are a part of life and I know that as I go through school, my career, and other activities, they will never go away. The best way to get through these issues is just to take them head on and not let up until the problem has been fixed.