MORE ABOUT CHRISSY
Graduation Date: June 2010
Hometown: Schiller Park, Illinois
High School: East Leyden High School
Awards & Achievements:
- Dean's List
Campus Involvement:
- Informational Sessions on ALS (or Lou Gehrig’s disease for Clifton-Fullerton Hall)
Current Employment:
DePaul University Office of Admission
Chrissy Esparza
Area of Study:Elementary Education with a concentration on English
I chose my major because... I’ve always wanted to teach. I’m very interested in receiving the chance to mentor, educate and impact young people the way my teachers impacted me.
My favorite thing to do on campus is… to go the Ray Meyer Fitness & Recreation Center. I love the ellipticals with plasma televisions. Sometimes I need that sort of incentive in order to gain motivation to work out, and I love playing basketball on the courts upstairs. Hanging out in the dorms is a good time, too. I love my roommate and my suite mates at Clifton-Fullerton, and I’m glad we all mesh pretty well together.
I decided to attend DePaul because… I love the atmosphere it provides. We’re a college campus with the entire City of Chicago within reach. I thought about what DePaul could offer to me in comparison with a state school and I realized that I’d grow much more intensely if I immersed myself into both the rich culture of urban life and the diverse environment of DePaul’s student life.
The learning environment here at DePaul is… perfect for me. I love that most of my professors know me by name and that they’re so accessible. So far, I feel like professors genuinely care about the subjects they’re teaching and also about whether or not students are grasping the content. I like that I’m held accountable for my attendance and the quality of my work.
My favorite professor at DePaul is… Siobahn O’Donoghue. She is the most intelligent, passionate, inspiring professor that I’ve had thus far at DePaul University. To be honest, I was unsure about my major when I first started my freshman year. But after watching the way Siobahn held classroom discussions, immersion activities and lesson plans, my dream to teach was reignited. I felt as though Siobahn helped me out of the scariness that comes with beginning college life and assumed a position in my life as not only a role-model in teaching method but also as a woman I look up to while I build my own character.
The class I most enjoyed here was… my freshman year focal point on Edgar Allan Poe. My professor, Melissa Bradshaw, was another professor that I enjoyed tremendously. She taught each class with enthusiasm and raw passion from beginning to end. She encouraged creative discussion and made the class feel more like a reading club than a formal course. Plus, it feels pretty cool knowing I have an extensive knowledge of Edgar Allan Poe if I ever need to impress anyone.
When I have free time, I like to… hop on the el and see the city sights. I love how huge the list of things I can do is. I love going to Fullerton beach, seeing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, watching Cubs games, eating at new restaurants, and thrift-store shopping.
One thing I didn’t know about DePaul before coming was... how many people come from out-of-state locations. I was pretty impressed by that.
Here, the diversity of students, faculty and staff… is impressive. I feel like my education and college experience is extremely multi-faceted and I feel proud of the university I’ve chosen because of that diversity.
The greatest thing about going to school in Chicago is… everything. The food, the music scene, the shopping, the atmosphere — they’re all amazing. No matter who you are or what kind of path you’re on in life, there’s something that you’ll enjoy or some place that’ll feel like home to you.
At DePaul, service learning is… encouraging students to claim their own active role in their education and in their community. At DePaul, community and service are key components in understanding our direct environment as well as the more vast consequences of service at a societal level.
The one DePaul experience I will always remember will be… Discover Chicago. I absolutely loved the entire immersion week and all the trips we took to really explore and learn about Chicago. My entire class was awesome and I feel like we’re all still a tight-knit group. Some of my best friends at DePaul were in my class and sat next to me on my first day of Discover Chicago, and we love looking back on how much fun we had that week.
The best thing about DePaul is… the people. I’ve had such an amazing time so far meeting and becoming friends with all the people in my dorm and in my classes. I feel like I’ve learned so much from everyone I’ve met and I’m really happy I get the chance to grow alongside such interesting personalities.
What I remember most about my first quarter at DePaul is… the intense excitement I felt when I realized I was completely on my own. It may be juvenile to admit, but when I realized, my first Friday night at DePaul, that for the first time in my life I didn’t have a curfew, I was completely ecstatic.
My greatest success as a student here has been… making the Dean’s List. It makes my parents really happy so I get pretty excited about it.
After graduation, I plan to… start teaching right away and continue my education to receive my master's in education. I can’t wait to have my first classroom and class of first graders.
The one thing I’d like to say to students considering DePaul is… DePaul will not only challenge you academically, but also challenge you to grow as a person. Embracing the diversity and using it to educate myself outside of the classroom has had an amazing impact on who I am and I feel like I wouldn’t be as happy as I am anywhere else.
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