Matthew Aspinwall ’23
College of Education
Major: Elementary Education
Hometown: Atlanta, GA
Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Matthew Aspinwall knew that he wanted to explore colleges far from home. And, outside of geographic location, it was most important that the college he chose offered the major he wanted, Elementary Education, and that he would have opportunities to be in the classroom early on.
“In order to be a teacher, you should learn by actually teaching,” he says. “Compared to the other schools I was looking at, Butler offered the most classroom experiences.”
When he learned that College of Education (COE) students would be in the classroom starting with their first year, he was sold. The cherry on top was when he learned that he would have a full year of student teaching—as opposed to just one semester—during his senior year. “That didn’t happen at any of the other schools I was looking at.”
Not only did Butler offer him the experiential opportunities he was looking for, but he also found that Butler’s faculty truly care for their students—another quality that helped set Butler apart.
“I remember a time last year when I was looking for crayons for an assignment and asked my professors if they might have any,” he says. “Five teachers in the College of Ed were all looking with me to find these crayons. It wasn’t a big deal, I was just asking to ask, I could’ve bought them, but I think that is just one example out of many that shows how much they care about me, which you just can’t say for so many schools.”