Once upon a time, there was a girl named Lindsey who loved school. In addition to loving school, she formed friendships with several of her teachers over the years. One in particular was her 7th grade cooking teacher named Connie. They kept in touch for a little while while Lindsey was in high school, but eventually they lost track of one another.
In 2012 Facebook gave them the chance to reconnect; Lindsey was looking to give back to the community by volunteering at the middle school, and Connie was more than happy to have the classroom assistance. As Lindsey came every Wednesday for a few months, she saw first-hand how much the cooking class had changed. The cooking labs were extremely limited, and the students didn't seem to understand half of what they should have.
Lindsey was perplexed. If the students weren't taking anything away from the class, how and where would they learn these vital life skills? I mean, not understanding food can be detrimental to your health!
Flash forward to the fall of 2014, Lindsey was sitting in her first class for graduate school, and was asked what she wanted to do with this degree. "That's easy," she thought. "I want to be the dean of something!" But as the semester picked up, she needed to find a way to turn her dream of being the dean into a viable thesis project topic.
She remembered Connie, and how the cooking class experience had evolved to the point where it's effective was being questioned.
"That's it!" she thought excitedly to herself.
She approached Connie and pitched an idea to her. What if she did a research project built around cooking classes and asked the students what they thought? Connie was thrilled that Lindsey had taken such an interest in this department of curriculum, and knew that the data gathered would be unique (because no one had ever gathered data like this before).
Lindsey returned to the classroom sporadically over the next two semesters, and knew in her heart that this was what she needed to write about. Connie switched positions and began working for the district, which made it possible for her to participate in a much larger capacity than she would have as a teacher.
They teamed up and began seriously discussing what a project like this could (and should) look, and what data would need to be gathered in order to facilitate any kind of change. Lindsey was up for the challenge; she knew that if she could do this, it would have a huge impact on the district in a positive way.
Lindsey began researching. Twenty peer-reviewed sources quickly grew to 42, and the Internal Board Review proposal began to form. By December 2015, the proposal was written and approved, and Lindsey and Connie began recruiting participants. At this point, the thesis chapters had developed a personality of their own, and Lindsey felt it appropriate to give the thesis a name. His name was Truman.
Four months, two teachers, one administrator, and seventy-one students later, Truman sat at 93 pages long. Lindsey sent him off for final evaluation, and some polishing edits brought his final page count to 95 pages.
Lindsey couldn't believe how fast the time went by, but she also couldn't believe how it drug on at various points in this process as well. It was safe to say that Truman had been born (on April 22), and Lindsey was ecstatic (mostly because it was over!).
The moral of the story is: hard work pays off, so give it your all!
Also, study what you love and it won't feel like work.
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