After a semester of student teaching with Mr. Randy Lothrop‘s math classes, Ms. Kenzie Wall is ready to move on. She is set to graduate from Xavier University and hopefully get a full time position as a math teacher. But before she leaves, she has some wisdom to share.
Q: If you could tell your high school self one thing, what would it be?
A: The things that you value now are temporary and not worth basing your life around.
Q: How did you choose Xavier?
A: I like the city of Cincinnati, the small size of the school, and the atmosphere I saw on the tour.
Q: What led you to becoming one of the eight major majors in your class and minoring in teaching?
A: I started my freshman year with a major in business and a minor in art. But during one of my first classes, Introduction to Marketing, I realized I couldn’t spend my life trying to sell people things that they didn’t need. I think we need marketers but that wasn’t what I wanted to do. So that summer, I ended up getting offered a position as a teaching assistant by a woman I used to nanny for, and I got great behind-the-scenes experience that motivated me to change my major to math.
Q: How did that process work?
A: I went and met with my adviser. They told me there was no way I could meet the requirements for a math major and a minor in secondary education, since I only had five semesters to get it done along with student teaching. So I wrote up a plan and ended up having to take three to four math classes at a time and sometimes over 18 credit hours.
Q: What helped you manage your time between college, Young Life leading, and assistant coaching for the Flyerettes?
A: I learned to set apart personal time, where I could recharge, refocus, and re-evaluate. Sometimes I would be walking through campus with a backpack full of books and extra books in my hands, on the verge of crying, but God helped me through it.
Q: What advice do you have for college bound seniors?
A: Take classes you’re interested in as soon as possible. Even if you’re interested in engineering and communications, take classes in both right away. It’s silly to think that you have to have everything figured out, but it’s naive to think you have unlimited time.
I would encourage people to take a nontraditional roue to the typical college party scene- have a purpose behind everything you do. For me, it was much more fulfilling.
