This photo captures not only the essence of my time with City Year but also the essence of my entire portfolio. I took this photo the first week of school. It was a good reminder of the mission I was on and why it was important. However, it was not until recently that I realized just how meaningful it would be in my life.

To put it bluntly, my time at City Year was not easy. Working over 40 hours per week in a low-income and underfunded public school allowed me to see some of the saddest aspects of our society. It was not easy trying to teach a seventh-grade student English composition when they only read at a third-grade level. It was not easy dealing with distressed teachers preparing for examinations and not having the proper materials ahead of time. It was not easy seeing so many problems such as violence and poverty plague this community and feel like what I was doing was only putting a bandage on a much deeper problem. At times I felt like giving up. Like what I was doing, in the end, would not really make a difference. But as the photo so elegantly communicates, education is at the heart of everything.

At a fundamental level what I was helping those students with would benefit them well into their futures. I had to remember how important education was and how my ancestors fought for their right to be educated. It may seem insignificant, but teaching these students to read and write could set them up for success in a way I could not even imagine. It was in fact my learning to read which sparked an intense level of curiosity that follows me to this day. Despite all the unfortunate circumstances surrounding this experience, I came back each and every day. In fact, it was these circumstances that reinforced just how important my mission was. While I could not solve every problem facing the that community, doing my best to assure these students had a sound education would impact their lives well beyond the classroom.