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The below article is an essay written by Emmanuel Limbe one of the youngest members of the BC Global community. Our purpose is to bring young students to share their motivational story that can transform them to be leaders of tomorrow. We bring together young leaders from diverse groups who want to create systemic transformation based on a deep foundation of inner development giving them a chance to lead in the community and be guided along the way as they experience from our daily social and economical challenges that face our community.

Character and Learning

Having the right character and mindset is essential in any endeavor you pursue. A strength of character and adopting the right mindset has shown to be very beneficial in my life and in my learning. In childhood people might not be aware that there is a specific mindset that they follow. I personally was not aware that I followed what is known as a growth mindset and that it helped me become successful in my early and late childhood. The growth mindset can be defined extensively but in simple terms it is the belief that your abilities can be improved upon and it is also a mindset in which you always want to improve in your abilities. The growth mindset is something that I have always followed without having to think about. The growth mindset is the most powerful tool for learning and is a mindset that has helped me in the past and will continue to help me in the future.

My first past experience of applying the growth mindset occurred when I was in first grade. Prior to entering the first grade I had lived in Cairo, Egypt for the first six years of my life. I had learned English but not as well as other first grade students who had learned English in America. I had to attend summer school for my first two years of American schooling, but by my third year I was one of the top students in my grade. I applied the growth mindset by gradually improving my academics every year until I was one of the best three students in my grade. My experience had a direct correlation to Carol Dweck’s article in which she showed a study where children gradually improved their academics. In Carol Dwecke’s article it was shown through a study that children with a growth mindset were ahead in learning over a span of two years. “Although both groups had started seventh grade with equivalent achievement test scores, a growth mindset quickly propelled students ahead of their fixed-mindset peers, and this gap only increased over the two years of the study.” A fixed mindset is the belief that intelligence is genetic and that it can’t be improved upon. Connecting my experience to Carol Dweck’s study of the power of a growth mindset has given me extra motivation to improve on my learning.

In fifth grade the growth mindset had further helped with my learning. The growth mindset proved to be beneficial to me when I won a writing contest. In fifth grade my teacher had recommended that I should enter a writing contest on a human rights activist of my choice because she thought that I could win it. I chose reluctantly to enter it and I wasn’t sure at the time that I could win it since I was competing against seven other schools. In the early stages of my essay I had a hard time picking a human rights activist.I also had a hard time beginning my essay on human rights but I believed that I could improve my writing and make my essay compelling and that in turn helped me win the writing contest for my entire school district. “It is the belief that intelligence can be developed that opens students to a love of learning, a belief in the power of effort and constructive, determined reactions to setbacks.” I grew a love for learning because writing the essay was one of the first experiences I’ve ever had talking about someone who I was really passionate about and it was a challenge so it really helped me grow as a learner. I had won the writing contest because I didn’t let my setbacks with writing hamper my effort in making an essay good enough to win the contest. Reacting to setbacks is the most important part and beneficial thing in having a growth mindset. This learning experience motivated me to not let my setbacks negatively affect how I approached any problem that I had in my life. Later in my childhood the growth mindset proved to be beneficial for my brief track and field career. I had started track my junior year of high school while most of my friends started track their freshman year of high school. I was extremely committed to being a good track athlete so by my senior year I was good enough to get a division 2 scholarship for discus throwing. In the article, “The Significance of Grit,” it said, “So grit is not just having resilience in the face of failure, but also having deep commitments that you remain loyal to over many years.” Grit is what is required in a growth mindset because people that have a growth mindset stay committed to what they want to learn and they are always resilient when facing failure. Commitment is a symptom of having a growth mindset and having a growth mindset breeds commitment in any area of life.

The growth mindset is a concept that is going to help me stay committed to working hard in this class. I know that intelligence can be improved upon from connecting the articles to my own experience and that in turn will help me stay committed to doing all my assignments in the class in time and getting an A in the class. I will also not let my setbacks in the class get the better of me and I will use my setbacks to reevaluate myself and spend more time improving on my weaknesses. I’m going to develop my motivation by learning from my mistakes and changing my approach to situations that I failed in. I will also remember that learning never stops and that I can always do better in whatever is important in my life.

Works Cited

Perkins-Gough, Deborah. “The Significance of Grit: A Conversation with Angela Lee-Duckworth.” Educational Leadership, Sept. 2013, pp. 14-20. Print. Dweck, Carol S. “Brainology: Transforming Students’ Motivation to Learn.” National Association of Independent Schools, Winter 2008. Print.