Student Spotlight: Maria Hawkins, Education

Maria Hawkins is on a quest to prove to people that dreams do come true.

She graduated from high school three years ago with hopes and dreams that no one seemed to believe she could achieve, but she was already in the process. She took it upon herself to graduate a year early and did it. She worked hard to achieve the UA Scholars Award, and did it. Then she came to college and learned that things were much harder than she had perceived.

Unfortunately, Maria's house burned down three months before graduating high school, so when she came to college at UAA, it really was a head first dive into something new. She was no longer in her comfort zone, she was in a new school, she was younger than the majority of her classmates and she didn't have many friends from high school who joined her on the journey into college life.

Also, in that summer before her freshman year, her family took some more hard blows. Her mother switched jobs and moved to Wasilla and Maria didn't have guaranteed housing arranged for the school year. This created a financial dilemma; Maria didn't want to blow all her savings on one semester of college. So, she figured out her budget and decided to get a second job, but was still unsure of how things would pan out. She was seriously questioning whether she would be able to continue her schooling. Then, literally as she was having a conversation about her financial stresses, she received word that she got the Sheri Stears Education Scholarship.

She took it as a sign. She was able to go to school. She was going on to become a teacher.

Maria didn't always want to be a teacher; in fact, she wanted to be everything but a teacher. She wanted to be an architect, until she realized it was just the interior designing that interested her. Professor Bill Jamison inspired her to consider philosophy, then a double major in philosophy and psychology. Maria says that professor Jamison was very engaged with the students. He was very responsive to every e-mail and carefully read all papers, providing thoughtful comments. She was intrigued by Carl Jung and Freud and thought 'Why not?'  She was very young and didn't quite realize what all that entailed, so it changed after a few months of looking into those degrees. At one point she even decided she wanted to become a doctor - a surgeon more precisely - until she realized she couldn't stand the sight of blood.

Finally, instead of basing what she wanted to do in life off of what she was currently intrigued in, she took the time to sit down and think about her life.

Maria says, "When I was about seven, I helped other kids learn how to ski. As I got older, I helped toddlers learn how to swim. When I hit middle and high school, I was the one everyone came to, for everything. I became mediator of fights, supervisor of 'serious talks,' the one someone came to if they needed help on their homework, to helping dress for the next dance. All the things I did in life helped mold who I am today, helped show me that the classroom is where I belong."

Expecting to graduate with her B.A. in education in May 2012, Maria will have completed the difficult program in only five years - it usually takes at least six years to finish all the classes and year-long practicum. Her future goals after graduation from UAA are to get married, have kids and teach in Anchorage.

To Maria, being a teacher is about "connecting, about being able to sit down with someone and see that spark of recognition in their eyes when something clicks, or reading a paper by someone who really put effort into it. It's about resolving fights so your classroom isn't just a place a group of kids come in to learn things and leave-it's a place where friendships spark, a place that's safe to come to and grow."