Ania Fleszar was one of two recipients of the 2025 KDL Community Impact Scholarship. Here she shares how this award has impacted her life and education.
I wanted to update you on how this scholarship is helping me achieve my dreams and what I'm doing at college!
Midway through my first semester at Western Michigan University, I declared my major as English with a minor in history on WMU's secondary education track. Now that I'm nearly halfway through my second semester, I want to tell you things are going great. I am currently working with middle schoolers at Maple Middle school in the Kalamazoo district as a part of my English Education course and I get the opportunity to guide them in an after-school creative writing exercise. This short work has already felt extremely rewarding and taught me even more how much I love teaching!
Writing, language and teaching have proved to be even more important to me at WMU. I was given the chance to truly discover how much I love teaching at Western, and I'm so glad I've solidified my passion. Writing isn't just how we capture ourselves; it's how we capture humanity! What's more human than passing on knowledge to others so they can express their beliefs to the world in permanent print? Additionally, I am applying to be a writing consultant at the WMU Writing Center, which could be a great opportunity to improve my teaching practice.
Thank you for taking the time to read my short catch up on my life at college and my path to teaching! I hope things are well at KDL and I am excited to see who gets the honor of receiving this scholarship next!
Applications for this year's scholarships are open through March 1. Visit kdl.org/scholarship for more information.
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