My role model, my inspiration, my motivation

By Ralph Milazzo
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
October , 2010

Role models are essential for the educational development of adolescents, because they provide valuable examples for young adults of how to do things the right way. They demonstrate the caring, work ethic, passion, and respect that all adolescents should strive to achieve during their adult lives.
Our story-sharing activity was a very meaningful and emotional event for our entire class. We were able to recognize the people who had tremendous impact on our lives and had motivated us to become the people we are today. It was a great experience to hear examples of type of parents and teachers that I will aspire to become in the future.

The person that has had the greatest influence on my life has been my father. As I spoke about in class, he works two full-time jobs, does various side work over the weekends, and volunteers his time at the Melville Fire Department. Even with all of these responsibilities, he was both my and my brother’s Little League coach and attended every one of my high school baseball games that he could. Seeing all that he does for my family and the community, motivates me to continue to work hard to achieve my goals and dreams. My father has set an example of hard work, respect, service, and caring that I hope to emulate and become similar to the man that he is. This was a great activity for future educators, because it provides models of the actions and qualities that we should have as teachers in order to make a positive impact on our adolescent student’s lives.