In the past, I would have shuddered at the thought of seeing my teachers at the grocery store, let alone of spending my summer traveling around Italy with them. But this summer, I realized that, shockingly enough, teachers do have lives outside the classroom and are actually quite interesting if you take the time to get to know them.
On a Global Summers program, your teachers do so much more than teach; they eat, explore, and learn right alongside you. GSA programs give you the chance to form really unique bonds with them that would struggle to exist in a classroom environment, even over the span of a whole high school experience, and on GSA program, that can happen in a month.
The relationships you form with your teachers make asking questions and feeling confused about material feel comfortable and normal. When you spend this much concentrated time with your teacher, you start to understand that teachers as a whole really do want you to succeed and reach your full potential. That understanding builds a special sense of accountability. Having someone who believes in you like that makes you want to succeed, not just for the dopamine rush from seeing an 100% on your test, but because you don’t want to let your teacher and more importantly, yourself down, and that is perhaps the strongest motivation you will ever find in an academic context.
This motivation will, of course, make your every failure hurt that much more. BUT, when you have a teacher who is invested in your success, you will also have a friend and mentor who will pick you up, dust you off, and do everything in their power to help you understand where you went wrong and guide you towards growth.
This past summer, I traveled to Italy with Global Summers to take advanced functions. Not only was this class really important for my university applications, but my teacher did a really good job of creating a close-knit class environment that drove everyone to try even harder to succeed. We even called ourselves the “mathletes”. But ultimately, we took a test. I did not do well on it at all. It really upset me, especially with the high stakes. And as our program neared its end, I was fearful that I would not have many other opportunities to redeem myself.
But thanks to my teacher and the class environment he cultivated, I knew if I voiced my concerns to him, he would be willing to help me. I asked him to review my test, and he willingly dedicated his own time outside of class to help me identify my mistakes and their root causes. In the end, he helped me catch a series of systematic errors that could have been disastrous if we hadn’t caught that habit, and I repeated the same mistakes on the exam. With his help, I made a remarkable comeback in time for the exam.
Thanks to my teacher I returned to Toronto with a 95% grade in the course and a newfound appreciation for my teachers.
Thanks to Student Ambassador Jonah B. for writing this blog post!
