And there were three who believed

     Below is an paper assignment I had to write for my expository writing class.  We had to write about an reflection on our education in our lives, and what struggles we had or who had made a different in our lives to help us get to where we were currently.  There was only a 5 page limit, so I was only able to write about three of many people who had made a difference and changed my life forever.  Some of this I haven't shared with really anyone other than a handful of people.      

Reflecting on an Educational Journey
John Trammell
California State University, San Bernardino

     The educational road in my life has been a long and curvy one, filled with different challenges throughout my journey. A major challenge on my educational journey has been my attempt at discovering how I wanted to travel down this road, and what my career choice would be to steer me down my educational road. As I reflect on the progression made on my journey, I find that I need to define what my education was, where the most important learning took place, and how the bumps, curves, and twists of this road got me where I am today. I believe that education is a mixture of the information you learn in a classroom, and what you learn from real life experiences. With that in mind, I see my educational road being a two lane road for most of my journey, with an expansion to a third lane in recent years. The first lane of my journey is one all youth are compelled to travel down. Elementary, middle, and high school are the minimal, mandatory educational requirement for all children living the in the United States. The school lane is still a work in progress with me attending college. My road expanded to a second lane in 1994 when I joined 4-H, an youth development program that focuses on youth learning leadership, citizenship, and life skills via learning by doing. I feel that 4-H had the greatest impact on my education. The third expansion of my educational road involved the learning experiences from my first job, working for the University of California Cooperative Extension under the Operation: Military Kids Program/4-H Military Partnership. All these aspects of my journey have given me many learning experiences that have helped me to get to where I am today. I have met many people who have believed in me, and with their help, they provided course corrections of my journey leading up to where I currently am today. I have pinpointed three important people, outside of my parents, who with their guidance, have helped shape my educational journey.

     As I mentioned earlier, 4-H had the greatest impact on my education. A volunteer leader, Bernardine Marquez, is the first of the three people that made an impact on me. I met Bernardine when I gave my first demonstration in my second year of 4-H. Bernardine was one of my judges for my presentation. Near the end of the day, she had met my parents and gave some pointers that would help me become better in my presentations. After watching me grow in presentation skills for a few years, Bernardine wanted to push me past the competition world; she felt I needed to learn leadership skills. In October 2001, she invited me to attend county leadership day where youth can learn how to become better officers and leaders in their clubs. This was a major move up for me. Giving a demonstration was easy in a small room with a judge or two and a few people. Doing one in a larger room, with more people watching and in front of your peers was nerve racking. Bernardine pushed me to give the presentation and in doing so, pushed me out of my comfort zone. I had index cards prepared, and I got up to the podium in front of a large group of kids, which I only knew one or two of them. I remember being very scared. I mainly looked down at my index cards, tried to avoid eye contact with my audience. When I did look up, I looked to the walls in the back of the large room. The ten minute presentation felt like an eternity while I was up at the podium. In the end, I felt that my presentation was far less than stellar. Bernardine reassured me that I did a great job, and in the following years she had pushed me to give more difficult presentations and I got better. Over time I overcame my fear of speaking in front of people. With this newly learned skill and confidence, I became a 4-H State Ambassador, planning major state events and presenting in front of crowds numbering in the hundreds. In 2006, I had the opportunity to represent 4-H at the national level by giving a presentation with other 4-H members to a crowd of 13,000 people from around the world at the ESRI Users Conference in San Diego about 4-H and geographical information system technology; in a nutshell, creating maps via computers to analyze data and solve problems. Since that time, I have presented countless workshops to adult leaders and youth on various topics. Had I not been pushed out of my comfort zone by Bernardine early on, I am sure that I would not have had the wonderful learning experiences I gained.

     As I reminisce through my public school days, I have come to realize that I didn’t really have any important teachers that helped guide my educational road to where I am today. I had teachers that always encouraged my involvement outside of school, like 4-H. They allowed me to practice my presentations in class and supported my fundraisers I was doing, but there was little academic push on their part. And then there was Mr. Reese. He stood out from the rest. He was my biology & environmental science teacher in high school. In tenth grade, I had to take biology, and Mr. Reese was my teacher. For the first semester of the year, things went along a normal student/teacher path. Along the way he got to know me and learned about my work in 4-H and in photography through conversations we shared during class and lab projects. He also discovered my love for the life sciences. I have to admit that I was a lazy student and did not always do the assignments to the best of my ability. Sometimes I even skipped doing the work altogether. However, he saw something in me. He figured out that I had learned the information and he asked me to help other students with their labs. Near the end of the year, when we were covering natural environments and ecology, he asked me what I was planning on learning in college. At the time, I didn’t have an answer, and he gave me a suggestion to go into the science field. He then mentioned that he taught an environmental science class, and he highly recommended that I take it the next year. Mr. Reese signed the approval form for me to be in the class. Taking that class in eleventh grade was the best decision I made. I fell in love with the subject, and it became my favorite class in high school. We spent most of the time working in groups doing a research project once a month on different environmental studies and issues. We would present our research to the class at the end of each month, and we would go out on multiple field trips to do environmental research and data collection for a local wildlife conservancy in Oak Glen. That is when I decided I would go to college to get my degree in environmental science.

     When I graduated from high school, my overall plan was to go to Crafton Hills College to work on my general studies, and then transfer to CSU Monterey Bay for my degree in environmental science. Within the first year I started having questions about getting that degree, and started juggling around the ideas of getting a degree in computer science, photography, or find a degree that would bring all my leadership skills I had learned in 4-H to good use. Suddenly I found myself in an educational and emotional quagmire. I started to flounder and fumble in school, failing some of my classes. My confidence was at an all time low and I even considered dropping out of college. The day after I graduated from high school a job came knocking on my door. Operation: Military Kids at the Consumer Economics Office of the University of California Cooperative Extension at UC Riverside needed a youth that was in college that had a variety of skills, including presentation skills. Chanda Gonzales got a recommendation to hire me because of my computer, photography, leadership, and presentation skills I gained through 4-H. She allowed me to do work way beyond my job description because of those abilities. We went to a camp for military children in Placer County in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and it was my task to set up our mobile technology lab for the military youth to do projects on our computers. Chanda walked over to see how I was doing, and as we were waiting for the youth to come over to our area, we started talking. I mentioned to her my dilemma I was having with school and how I was trying to figure out what I should do in my not so distant future. She started talking about all the great skills I have in doing my 4-H work and with the work I was doing in the Military Kids program. She suggested that a degree in public administration would be a better choice for me since it better fit with what I already loved to do. She also stated that she had a very high level of confidence in my success with a position in a public administration career. Chanda then added that she earned a master’s degree in public administration from CSU San Bernardino. After I got home from the trip, I had started doing some research in the degree, and after talking to a few more people, I had decided that it would be a perfect fit. I decided I would get a B.A. in public administration with a minor in environmental studies. I slowly improved in my school work, and after a long battle of getting back onto track, I was able to transfer to CSU San Bernardino in September 2011. Had I not mentioned my challenges to Chanda, I am sure that I would have dropped out of college and felt like a lost soul. While Chanda was my boss, she built back my confidence by allowing me to work beyond what my job description was. She let me shine and do my work to the best of my abilities and beyond. I am also grateful that I felt comfortable enough to share with her my thoughts. She was a great listener.

     In my short life, I have had many people over the years who have made a difference in my life, and every difference has created a bend in my educational journey bringing me to where I am today. Beyond my parents pushing me and supporting me, the three people mentioned above were just as instrumental in my journey advising me, and believing in me. I know that my future will be a bright one, filled with many more life learning experiences. I am very thankful and feel privileged to have met these people, who have guided and changed my life for the better.