New Beginnings.

In the first grade, everybody in my class had to draw a picture of what they wanted to be when they grew up. I wanted to be a teacher and--to this day--I still remember my drawing being posted up against the yellow wall of my first grade classroom. Throughout the years, my interest in being a teacher remained with the usual random career changes of wanting to work for the FBI, being a film editor, or wanting to be a copy editor for the New York Times. Regardless of the changes I thought of throughout my life, I always went back to wanting to be a teacher. I was always supported and found comfort in my teachers and I guess--even in the first grade--I wanted to do the same to others.

Fast-forwarding a few years (okay, maybe 12 years...), I was going to make my dream a reality. I had uncovered my passion for literature and decided that I was going to teach others about the power and beauty of it. Throughout my first year of college, my education classes were my favorite. I absolutely loved learning about students, education, and the development of my personal pedagogy. I was getting ready to apply to the Teacher Education Program Spring semester of my sophomore year.

During the summer going into my sophomore year, I was selected to be a Peer Leader at school to help out with Orientations. I wanted to get involved on campus and this was a really good way to gain experience working with students. Plus, I had a pretty awesome Peer Leader at my Orientation (yay, Lisa)! I gained more out of the experience than I thought I would ever get and I was like...a better and stronger version of myself. I guess others noticed it too because I was one of the people who got the "Rising Star" awards for growing the most throughout the program. I really loved my experience and wanted to continue working for the department and I eventually became their student assistant.

Being a student assistant gave me a lot of time to learn about everyone and everything in the department and I really liked it. I was given projects at work where I did a bunch of things such as creating newsletters or researching other Universities and it opened my eyes. All this was a way of helping students, but in a different way.

As I had the chance to learn more about the people I worked with, I learned about their experiences as Undergraduate students and how they came to choose Higher Education as their career. It was interesting because everyone came from different schools and studied different things, but they somehow all ended up in Higher Education. This had me thinking--I loved everything I did for the department and what they did to help students, maybe I'll look into this.

During my winter break after my first semester of sophomore year, I was on my way to completing my application for the Teacher Education Program, but I had also found myself in a struggle. I was really developing an interest for Higher Education, so I wasn't even sure if applying to be a teacher was worth it. If I wasn't going to be a teacher, then why would I be in the Teacher Ed Program? Well, my decision to go into Higher Education wasn't solid, so I applied was admitted in the Spring.

I spent my Spring semester in a literal zig-zag up and down the hallway of Morehead Hall going from advisor to advisor seeking advice on what to do. Should I go into Secondary Education or Higher Education? I had worked so hard to reach what I had thought was my dream for almost my whole life and I was going to give it up, just like that. I couldn't believe how quickly things could change. This was different than the other careers I had pictured myself in and out of throughout my life. I was in the environment, I was playing a mini-role in the field, and I loved it.

During the summer, I reapplied to be a Peer Leader, but I was a PL for the Family Program this summer. I had the opportunity to work with hundreds of parents and sure learned a lot about understanding people's view from other perspectives. Throughout the program, I had parents tell me how they felt reassured about sending their students to MSU because of my conversations with them. I also had a few tell me they could tell how much I loved what I did and even said they saw passion in me. One day during lunch, one of the Deans came up to me and told me she loved how she saw how happy I was every day and, she too, mentioned the passion she saw I had for what I was doing. Now, when one of the Deans tells you she can see your passion about something, you have to be doing something right.

By the end of the program, I had the same type of feeling I had the first time, but it was greater this time. I felt I had grown even more and learned the importance of staying positive. I had grown to an even better version of myself--Giovanna M. Tello 2.0.

Towards the end of the summer, I continued to spend more time with the advisors on what I career path I should take and it was ultimately my decision. I had been debating this with myself for months and I had to make a decision. Deep down, I knew I had made my decision a few weeks into Orientations, but I wasn't sure if maybe I needed more time just to make sure. But, one day in August, I just did it. I actually made the decision in my mentor's office and later went to the Center of Pedagogy and it didn't feel wrong at all, so I knew I was doing the right thing.

I came to realize that I wasn't really giving up on my dream. I was still going to be doing what I love to do: helping people through education. I was just going to do it in a slightly different environment and in a different way than being in a classroom. I didn't really realize it until later, but this is exactly what I had been looking for.