Bree Hohnbaum discusses her journey to becoming a teacher. She shares experiences from her childhood education, struggles in college, and finding her passion for teaching. She realized in 7th grade she wanted to be a teacher after learning about the impact teachers can have. Though she struggled in her early years of college, she found success at Community College of Western Idaho and is now studying to become an elementary school teacher. She believes that education can change the world and that teachers are the future.

1. Running head: CHANGING THE WORLD THROUGH EDUCATION
Changing the World Through Education
Bree Hohnbaum
College of Western Idaho

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Changing the World Through Education
The walk to the bus stop going to McMillan Elementary the first day of the
kindergarten a.m. class was the most exciting, scary, wonderful time of my life thus far.
My nerves were going crazy and I felt dizzy and unsure of what I was going to do; what
it would be like. I had always been around other children from daycare and my mom’s
friend’s children, but nothing like learning so much new information in a whole new
environment at this big new school with other children my age. It was like a whole new
era. At the time, I didn’t really know what to expect of education or what it was going to
be like. I remember just feeling so great that I was starting the first day of the rest of my
life. My parents, on the other hand, were an absolute wreck. Their first child going off to
school was the proudest, but most scared I have ever seen them; that is, until the day I
found myself accepted to Boise State University, not knowing what to do next.
My senior year at Borah High School was, what I thought, going to be the best
year of my life and I could just “cruise” through it, like everyone around me was always
telling me and saying that was what they were doing. I had no idea that my life would be
changing so quickly in only a couple of months. It really didn’t hit me until about two
months before graduation that I would probably not be seeing all these kids that I had
spent the last thirteen years of my life with. We all wanted to go off in different
directions and do different things, and many of my friends were moving away to go to
college or do various other things with their life. I didn’t even really know if I wanted to
go to college at this point. My parents always told me that I would be going to Boise
State since I was a little girl, but it was getting down to the nitty gritty and it was now or

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never. So, I chose now, and I went off to Boise State University to start my first year of
college, hopefully not my last, and just hope that I could get out of there in one piece.
I believe that my first thought of becoming a teacher, happened in the seventh
grade in my English class. The teacher’s name was Mrs. F, (I don’t think I ever learned
her real last name) we called her that because her last name was too long for us, or so she
thought. Mrs. F had always told me that I was a great in English and considered that I
look into a profession that involved some form of English, such as teaching, when we
went to the career fair the following day which was located at the fairgrounds. I kind of
kept this notion in the back of my mind, for I wanted to do something else; I wanted to
become a Veterinarian. I only wanted to achieve this profession, however, because of the
simple fact that I loved animals and thought that being around them all day was
something that I wanted to do. Much to my dismay, I did not know how long this was
going to take to achieve the degree needed and also the people down at the job fair told
me this was not an easy route, not just for the schooling required, but because of the tasks
that it involved me to complete. These included things like: putting animals down,
conducting surgery weather it be minor or major, dealing with the crying pet owners, and
possibly even taking some of the injured animals with no homes, home with me. I started
thinking about what Mrs. F had told me the previous day and I decided that I might as
well check out the “Education” booth and what it had to offer someone like me.
The moment I walked up to the Education booth was one of my glory moments.
The people there told me about the riches of becoming a teacher, not necessarily in the
literal sense, but more of what you can gain from teaching. They told me about the
minds I can sculpt and the power I would achieve to influence even the smallest minds in

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the smallest bodies. They told me of the wonderful benefits that would come and the
greatest feeling you get when students come back to you years later and tell you of the
way they remembered you or how you changed or influenced their life, maybe even made
them finally decide on their career. Everything that I learned that day I would apply to
the knowledge that I have now about education. It is the greatest, most powerful gift one
can ever give someone, and this specific career day helped me to realize this for myself.
I began doing further research to broaden my knowledge of the career and found out that
this really was what I needed to be doing with my life. Everything else that I thought I
could become was just a blur to me. It was education that I needed to be focusing on
from here on out, and that is just what I did. I researched it and studied it in years to
come after that seventh grade day and sure enough, here I am now, in Education 201
learning the basics of becoming an Elementary School teacher.
Boise State University did not turn out to be exactly the type of schooling that I
needed at that current point in my life. Jumping right into college right after high school
was not something many of my friends did, but my parents told me that I would most
likely not go back to college if I took a year, or even a semester off from my education.
This is how I ended up at Boise State that first year, 2007. I thought I would do at least
alright since, in high school, I had achieved a 3.0 grade point average or higher every
year and assumed to keep my grade point average constant throughout the college years.
I then got sucked into the whole college scene and ended up failing all my classes but one
my first semester. It then went in a pattern like that for the following years, where I
would be on academic probation one semester and then off academic probation the next
semester. This was the only way that I had remained in college, and even I am surprised

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that the school board did not kick me out. However, when I needed some help or needed
to ask a question, when I actually was trying, the professors at Boise State were no help
at all to me. They would never return e-mails, meet with me after class, and none of
them were ever in their offices during their office hours. I was very distraught with my
life at this point ant decided that, maybe I need to move away for awhile. Away from
Boise, and the hole I was falling into quite fast.
Colorado was my next destination. I moved there in the beginning of the summer
in 2009. I packed up my things and kissed my parents goodbye in hopes that I would
find something bigger, brighter, and better than what was left for me in Boise. I thought
that I could maybe find some school or something to go to there that would provide me
with more opportunities than I was missing out on here or rather messing up on. This,
however, turned out to be a terrible choice for me. I soon found myself lacking in funds
grossly. I had only just enough money left to move back to Boise by the time that fall
came around. I lasted only about six months total in Colorado when I finally gave up and
returned home to Boise to live with my parents, once again.
I found out about CWI through the commercials on TV and also through a couple
of my friends that were going there at the time and thought that since I can’t make it at a
University right now, maybe I would be able to make it at a community college, where it
is smaller, closer knit, and also closer to my house. My mom told me that I should apply
for CWI for the spring semester in 2010. I got accepted and soon found out that I really
can do this whole college thing. I really want to make something of myself, and I finally
found the drive that I needed to achieve this. I was happier than ever and have been
going to CWI ever since and I love it. The instructors are so personal with me and the

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classrooms are smaller so that I can get more one on one time if I need it. I would really
like to continue to go to CWI until I have to switch to Boise State University to graduate.
Many things have taken me to the place I am at right now, studying education and
furthering my degree. Many things may push me away from it as I grow further in this
field, but I think that I am on the right track. Even being in the class that I am in right
now, I may be just really starting out my major, but I can already tell I am going to love
it. As I have begun my “observing” already, which, to me, is more like just student
teaching for the teacher that I am working with will not let me sit down for a minute, but
I absolutely love it. I love everything about being able to influence someone’s life or
anything about their life. It has nothing to do with how much money I will be making or
the summers I will be getting off; those are just bonuses. Just to think of the joy I would
get seeing one of my students I had many years past, who is now someone famous and
myself saying, “Hey! That kid was a student in my second grade class!” I think it would
just be the best feeling in the world. I think that, teachers are the future. Education can
change the world.