The world of academia brings familiarity and comfort as the role of a scholar has been assumed for an extensive duration. While many others rush through university to jumpstart their own careers and start life, I completed my first degree early and attended extra classes in the pursuit of knowledge. Some say ignorance is bliss, but I believe that the pursuit of knowledge and a newfound understanding of life-changing ideals provides its own euphoria. Andragogical teaching, where the focus of education is based on learning concepts applicable to one’s own real life, has always piqued my interest and I believe that sharing these teachings with others brings self-satisfaction. Enjoyable moments include when students would gain a greater understanding of complex topics due to my own current teachings. The lightbulb moment that occurs in the student’s face when their own neural synapses connect existing knowledge to new ideas is a self-rewarding experience. I chose to pursue academia as a career to provide more lightbulb moments with concepts and ideas that would help students traverse their new careers in nursing.

As a registered nurse who has various patients' lives in my hands, I would provide treatment and care that would optimally benefit the patient and would ensure that the patient's needs and desires are met. While at times the patient's needs and my own ideas for treatment may not coincide, I hope to utilize cultural competency to conduct a compromise that both sides would be happy with to ensure that the patient receives optimal care and treatment by their own standards. 

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Throughout nursing school, I’ve admired several professors for their teaching methods and hope to adopt a blend of their various styles in my own teaching. Some professors would provide relatable analogies to help explain complicated mechanisms while others would organize a plethora of various resources that would cater to the student’s learning style. I hope to blend the two teaching styles together to create organized and accessible learning resources that would help facilitate students’ learning and develop their knowledge exceedingly past their own expectations. My teaching belief is built on the premise that anyone can excel in academia and that the right educator can help all students succeed. Throughout my undergraduate career, I’ve been on both ends of the performance spectrum. I’ve been the student that needed extra guidance in order to pass the class as well as the student that excelled in his studies as the top performer. With proper guidance, any student can excel. Students learn best when they are provided with plenty of relevant resources, published in a digestible format, that focuses on the most important concepts. These resources would utilize concept-based learning as a foundation to provide students with focused material that is more commonly seen in current nursing practice. The oversaturation of concepts and work is counterproductive for the student. Therefore, the student should be introduced to relevant material and skills that connect prior learning concepts. Employment of this style of learning will benefit students beyond the scope of the course through the recognition of familiar focal points discussed in class to deduce unknown concepts. My teaching style would be student-focused with a focus on surpassing the student’s own self-expectations. I hope to facilitate learning with an empathetic mind and compassionate stance, especially for students who need extra attention with their own struggles. I want to enforce a fluid stance in grading for students who are experiencing challenges in life and work with them to achieve high expectations while they handle their own situations outside of academia. Listening to students with a caring approach will always bring a connection between the educator and student which will be beneficial in creating an education plan that will satisfy both parties. By the end of the course, I hope to build the student’s self-confidence and rigor while providing skills that could be utilized in other aspects of their life. The student will experience opportunities for active learning throughout the course through various interactions of material at scheduled times. How and when the student interacts with course material determines their cognitive ability to retain the new information. Therefore, the promotion of active learning with new material should be conducted in a timely manner.

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