After struggling through her high school Spanish class, Erin Gilbert, a senior in BYU Marriott’s School of Accountancy, vowed never to speak Spanish again.
When she received a call to serve a Spanish-speaking mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints in Lima, Peru, she dreaded learning the language. However, this experience was one of many that led her to the strong belief that learning is not only about gaining knowledge but also about enjoying the process and experiencing growth.
A native of Cary, North Carolina, Gilbert is passionate about providing opportunities for education to underrepresented students. Her position as copresident of Aspiring Leaders Pursuing Higher Achievement (ALPHA), a nonprofit organization that offers a variety of educational resources, helps her realize that passion.
“At ALPHA, we teach free ACT prep courses at two high schools in Utah County,” she says. “The ACT is a huge obstacle for students who don’t have the funds to take other prep courses. After the ACT prep course we taught in October 2020, the average ACT score of our students increased by five points. What we’re doing at ALPHA can change the trajectory of the colleges that our students can apply to in the future.”
ALPHA also helps students at BYU. The organization has mentorship programs for first-generation college students, and the group recently raised more than $25,000 to help students who were impacted financially by COVID-19. “Our organization works to break the poverty cycle, which we hope will have an effect on people’s lives and the lives of their children down the road,” says Gilbert. “Watching these students grow in their education is incredibly rewarding.”
Gilbert’s contributions to help other students in their educational pursuits don’t stop with ALPHA; she is also a teaching assistant for Accounting 200 at BYU Marriott. “Often I help a student who doesn’t understand a certain topic, and then they leave our meeting saying, ‘Oh, wow, that makes so much sense,’” she says. “Watching a student learn how to figure out the problem and then seeing their love of accounting blossom feels awesome.”
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Gilbert's story was also highlighted in BYU Marriott's 2021 Annual Report.
