Elliot Brinker, '18

Major: Spanish and French

Hometown: Livonia, Michigan

What makes you want to be a teacher or educator?

I wanted to be a teacher only after I realized what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be as a person. In high school, I found that I have an interest in languages and cultures, and a passion for understanding more of the world. Ever since I was young I’ve had a love for helping others. Despite the technology and advances that have been made in our time I feel that too many people grow up only understanding the bubble that they live in. It is my desire to help open people’s eyes, and allow them to connect with more of humanity that drives me towards education.

What do you love about being in Albion's Shurmur Center?

The two things that I love most about the Shurmur Center are the support that it provides and shared passion of the entire center and education department. You are supported on every level and through every step of the process towards becoming an educator. The staff and faculty foster close connections with the students and professionals in field and in the classroom. It is always easy to tell that the driving force behind these connections is the passion of those involved in the Center.

This passion extends beyond the Albion College students that they teach and is rooted in a concern for the students that will be taught by the graduates of the Shurmur Center. While every Shurmur Center student is supported and encouraged, we are taught to reflect on our own interests and goals to assure that we are the most effective in our future jobs as educators.

How do you think this experience will help you in your career goals?

The Shurmur Center and the education department really prepare you to excel as an educator in the future. The program includes large amounts of field experience, starting with the very first course, which really prepare you to be in the classroom. For many people, it helps them decide what kind of field they want to go into. This reflects the Center’s desire to help the students of future graduates before anything else. On a more personal basis, the program very closely reflects my own personal career goals, not only in becoming a teacher, but by helping me become the kind of teacher I want to be. Albion’s teacher education program focuses on a holistic teaching approach that I feel will best assist my future students in their own goals and educations.

What do you love about Albion College?

So much of what I learn and what I do at Albion reflects my life and my future life.  Almost all of my experiences at Albion College have not only educated me as a student, but also as a person. At Albion, I don’t feel any disconnect between my school experiences and the world around me. It is not that every fact I learn is specifically relevant to my own life, but every professor, student, or person I meet here helps me understand how everything is a lesson and how those lessons can help me shape my future.