How would you sum up the most important experience in your life in less than one-thousand words? Well, successful completion of this task could earn you both an awesome English grade and acceptance into the college of your choice.

During the early part of this school year, members of the Class of 2017 found themselves frantically trying to remember their past in order to convey this experience in the best communicable way.

While some of these writers find no problem with the assignment and ideas flow freely, others battle to come up with ideas and wonder, “What is the purpose of this essay?”

According to the website Road2College, the college essay became part of the admissions process focused on the students’ favorable energy towards an academic passion. While this idea still holds a significance to the essay’s objective today, this millennium has added more of a personal twist to it.

English teachers all around the nation teach the college essay process, which uses the original purpose of the essay and adds to it an important aspect that all students understand:  a grade, which can determine your future.

For those who assign this task, like twelfth-grade English teacher Ms. Gibboney, the assignment relates to the MCPS core curriculum but offers students much more.  “If I were to infer why [this assignment is in the curriculum], it’s that we know many seniors are applying to colleges and that the essay is an important component,” says Ms. Gibboney.

Senior English teachers work with students not only to write the essay for a class grade, but also to enlighten themselves about something more important than a grade: themselves.

According to Ms. Gibboney, their goal is to get every student to write this essay to help them become more familiar with their personal experiences and someday apply who they are at a college that suites them best.

Adding assignments like the college essay to the twelfth-grade curriculum is just part of what Ms. Gibboney sees as an overall focus by schools to prepare kids for the college admissions process.

“When I was in high school, I did poorly on the PSAT,” says Ms. Gibboney.  My mom panicked and dished out the funds for a tutoring center to teach me how to take the test.  My scores went up but, wow, it cost her a fortune.  Now we have SAT prep in schools!  Point is, these sorts of steps are intended to bring in-house what was formerly accessible to only those with economic advantage.  Those from all economic levels should have the same opportunity to tell their stories – and to tell them well.”

While teachers are the ones who assign, guide, edit, and grade the essay, students are – of course – the ones who must find inspiration and write the narrative. Helping students plan the essay is one of the key components for Ms. Gibboney.

She explains, “We focus on the first five sentences of what each student thinks he or she will write.  Sometimes, it’s not the right story.  Sometimes, the right story is there, but it’s not being told in an engaging manner.  Then there are the wild exercises that allow students to hear their own voices–literally–as another student paraphrases what he heard.  This allows students to know what parts of the story they wish to tell and how it stands out the most to others. I’m looking for authenticity, but with a consideration of the audience, uniqueness, a strong command of language, reflection–I want to read something that could be a short film plus robust internal dialogue. ”

Whether the amount of time a student spends brainstorming, planning, editing, and writing the essay is an entire month or a briefer period, Ms. Gibboney – and the rest of the twelfth grade team – know that there will always be that one student who can hit a home-run essay right off the bat.

One of those sluggers this year is senior Danielle Rehwoldt, who describes her process for the essay as a passionate experience.

Rehwoldt shares, “My essay was about conquering typical but consecutive life tragedies during my junior year. It was intertwined with a story about climbing a rock wall when I was little, setting an example for this little girl who looked up to me and conquered the wall herself.”

Rehwoldt’s story not only reveals the authenticity that Ms. Gibboney is looking for, but also utilizes an interesting technique. Her essay utilizes an entire metaphor that set her life and path to success due to what she has experienced in the past. Rehwoldt has been recognized in school before, as she is a part of different clubs and organizations and plays sports as well.  For some seniors, it is hard to compete with a person with such involvement and such a rich essay. However, when one thinks about what led Rehwoldt to such a strong piece, they are able to see the key component of what she wrote, her role as a positive influence to a young girl when she was only eight.

As for how Rehwoldt decided to write about this experience and then combine it with her experiences as a junior to show her newfound strength, she says, “My family suffered from separation, then I got terribly sick and even lost my grandmother, an important piece of my childhood.”

For Rehwoldt, the whole writing process was actually quite quick, and she admits it took her only an hour. She notes that being so passionate about her topic helped her with constructing and writing her piece. She says that it helped bring out the best side of herself, a side that she can now reflect on and see how it slowly shaped her life and still does to this day. Rehwoldt is a perfect example of a senior who knew her story and how to show it. While that might not be the case for every senior, the essay will be able not only to open their eyes to countless possibilities but also to gain a better understanding of who they are.