Ian Choi Why I Want to Pursue the Teaching Profession I grew up in the stereotypical Asian family where only esteemed merit based subjects such as math and science were valued. Therefore I was heavily conditioned to pursue majors of that nature, for example a medical doctor or an engineer. However, only recently have I noticed that despite all my summers of studying for the SAT’s and next semester’s math subject, I wasn’t on the same page as the advanced students in reading comprehension, which I believe is crucial in learning. Therefore I was ahead of myself, enrolling in electives and classes like debate and AP/IB English, I noticed my perspective of ideas were strangely distortedthan the norm’s. And as a result I received less than average marks. My parents were furious and these negative criticisms did not encourage me to study harder. I found refuge in sports where I discovered the foreign notion of positive reinforcement. I quickly became addicted to it, and started secretly focusing on sports. This life-style ultimately bloomed in college, when I started attending UT. I was studying mechanical engineering and playing volleyball for the Men’s team. Constant positive reinforcement during volleyball started distracting me from my studies, and I ultimately decided mechanical engineering wasn’t right for me. Unfortunately I was five years too late in my discovery. During my attendance at UT, however, I started coaching volleyball, and enjoyed it. It incorporates everything I love; quick critical thinking, speech delivery, leadership, and physical activity. It took a while, however, to link coaching and teaching. I started thinking about different methodologies of teaching so I could get the most out of my players. And finally, due to financial reasons, I had to start thinking about a profession, and two closely linked ideas came to mind; teaching or coaching. I thoroughly enjoyed my physics classes in college and decided that if I were to teach, it would be...