Reflective Essay: A Career As A College Football Player

This summer, I worked at a summer camp in Maine and helped a college football player gain academic eligibility. I did not expect to be in that position, but it was a rewarding and humbling experience. I met him at the beginning of summer during an introduction exercise. He told me that he was attending a Junior College because, after he dropping out of his first college, it was his only chance to earn his way back to division one football. I wished him luck and did not think much of it until I saw him studying alone in the dining hall a few weeks later. He told me that he had to take an online history course and get an A in the course to play in the upcoming season. I was a history major in college, and I saw an opportunity to help him study and pass the class. He admitted that he was never interested in history, and his high school did not prepare him for the academic level of college. Over the next month, I tutored him in basic American history and got the chance to …show more content…
My task was not easy because he failed the first two quizzes and required a near perfect score on the remaining quizzes and final to get an A. However, I was not one to give up in the face of adversity and neither was he. This history class determined his future, and I did everything in my power to help him get that A. Our tutoring sessions were tough but productive. He did not excel at first, but I insisted that he keep trying and I simplified the material to its basic core. I already took two similar history courses, and I knew what the teacher was looking for. I told him what to focus on in the readings, and how to approach history at an introductory level. His first quiz after studying with me was a 90, and he did not look back from there. I continued to help him whenever I had a chance, and by the end of the summer, he barely needed me. He got the A he deserved and went on to play football that