A man who values the well-being of others over his own luxuries.

Aviation has been my motivation throughout my life. From my time in school to the start of my business and joining the military, my passion and love for aviation influenced every decision I made. As a kid, I enjoyed watching airplanes and heavy equipment just like most young boys, but as I got older, I found more admiration for aviation. In 2017, my parents took me to Airventure Oshkosh for the first time, and it was eye-opening, to say the least. There were so many different types of aircraft and I became obsessed with airplanes. I took a introductory flight on my fifteenth birthday and that was my deciding factor to start my flight training. Since then, I attained my private pilot license and will continue with my instrument rating in June. In order to pay for my private pilot license, I started mowing lawns. I was fortunate to make enough to pay for my private pilot training, but the rest of my training is a different story. Part of the reason I joined the Wisconsin Air National Guard was to help offset the cost of pilot training and my passion for aviation pushed me through Basic Military Training. With a degree in aviation, I want to become a commercial pilot. The first reason is that it will give me the opportunity to travel. Initially, I will most likely be assigned domestic flights. As I gain experience, I will be able to visit countries across the world. The second reason is because I really enjoy flying. I currently have a private pilot license and so far, it has been the best decision I ever made (followed closely by joining the military). The third reason I want to become a commercial pilot is for financial security. Since the pandemic, it is more common to find in-demand pilot positions directly out of flight training, especially in commercial aviation. Giving back to my community is something I have taken seriously and I will do more as I become more successful. So far I have given blood, volunteered at my church, mowed lawns at no charge for those in need, and volunteered my time to safely drive people home from a public event. While it felt great to volunteer my time, I would also like to donate money as well. Specifically, I am really interested in helping the homeless. Living in Wisconsin, it can be really cold in the winter and I know homeless shelters struggle to support those that are in need of food and basic necessities, so that is definitely the best way I can give back to my community.

If I had to describe myself in two words, they would be perseverant and self-motivated. Two attributes that I have become familiar with in my educational career and my time in the military and make me unique. During my time in Basic Military Training, I learned a lot about hard work and efficiency, but it above all else taught myself and my wingmen about perseverance. The most challenging part of BMT was zero week. Getting woken up at 5:00 each morning to someone screaming in your face was not something you get used to very easily. I distinctly remember looking around the room after the third or fourth day and seeing the doubt in my wingmen’s eyes about our decision to join. It was around that time that we realized we would have to start rolling with the punches and get through it together if we wanted to graduate together. Self-motivation was the key factor that kept me going during BMT. While I was relying on my wingmen and they were relying on me to get through BMT, I still had to find the motivation to get out of bed in the morning. I did that by thinking about my drive to become a pilot, my future career, and serving my country to the best of my ability. In school, it also took me a little self-motivation to get through the day. Especially in my junior and senior years, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and really did not see a reason to be in the chair learning about something I did not care about. I realized that trying my best would open more doors to different colleges, scholarship opportunities, and even job opportunities in the future. In addition, I learned to motivate myself in my business. When I started JJ Lawn Care and Landscaping, I struggled to find recurring clientele for lawn services. The marketing I initially used did not produce results for my goals and was frustrating, to say the least. I had to think about different strategies I could use to make the business successful. I would get on my bike and hang door hangers on doors. Luckily, it paid off in the end and I was able to make it a successful business. Giving back to my community is something I have taken seriously and I will do more as I become more successful. So far I have given blood, volunteered at my church, mowed lawns for free, and I drove people home from a public event free of charge. While it felt great to volunteer my time, I would also like to donate some money as well. Specifically, I am really interested in helping the homeless. Living in Wisconsin, it can be really cold in the winter and I know homeless shelters struggle to keep the homeless fed and warm, so that is definitely the best way I can give back to my community.

When I was a Freshman in High School, I met one of my best friends in math class. He was sitting alone seeming to be an outcast from the rest of the class. I sidled down next to him and we immediately found common ground. We both liked running, video games, and football. After getting to know him, he wasn't that bad of a guy, even today, we are still friends. I help him film running videos and we always hang out when we aren't in school. Of course, this is one story, but it highlights the important lesson of kind gestures and Allyship. We both received a friend out of my gesture to sit next to him, so he wasn't alone. I always try to introduce myself to strangers I don't know kindly and I try to keep an open mind. I don't know what this person is/was going through and their mood may reflect that. I hope I can continue to be a light to other people no matter what they have gone through and no matter where they are now. My lifelong passion has been aviation. I always had a dream of owning my own charter service of course to make money, but also to help other people in need. I really want to help people affected by natural disasters in remote areas across the world. It's such a big issue and it requires medical supplies, food, and shelter that sometimes isn't available soon enough. I only bring this up because I feel it relates to Allyship so greatly. Helping people that feel alone, depressed, and stressed after losing everything they owned as well as loved ones. Really, everyone deserves to be treated fairly, and no one should feel alone. Recently, I joined my state's Air National Guard. I think doing this will give me another opportunity to better myself morally and spiritually. Being able to meet new people as well as aiding in natural disaster recovery and protecting our nation. I think it's an important part of our society and it's necessary for the safety of our country. Being involved has already taught me so much about respect, loyalty, and perseverance. Being able to see the bigger picture that is so much more than yourself, but also seeing just how much you can impact your friends, family, and community by your small duty to our country.

I keep a growth mindset every day by doing a variety of tasks. I periodically watch inspirational/motivational videos as well as always seek new opportunities. Inspirational/motivational videos personally help me to keep looking forward to what the future will bring especially when I am feeling unmotivated to do something. Being motivated helps me strive for success and how I can grow in my personal life as well as working life (school). I also try to seek new opportunities in a variety of applications. I have some money in the stock market and I try to see if there is a new company that has a lot of opportunity. I currently own and operate a lawn care and landscaping business, so I am always brainstorming ways to make our service better as well as new advertising strategies to bring in new clients. Something I am looking into is possibly real estate investing later on in my life to diversify my future assets. I showed a few examples of opportunities I have at least been considering and am always open to new ideas on growing as a high school senior.

Being patient is a necessity for me. The saying good things come to those who wait particularly comes to mind. As a senior in high school, I cannot wait to move on to bigger and better things in college, but I know that putting in the work in high school will make it easier for me in college. I have also had some personal experience with this. While pursuing my private pilot license, I made a bad decision on my checkride (final test). I chose to fly when the conditions were not ideal and borderline dangerous. Because of this, I ended up failing my first checkride. If I would have remained patient and waited for a better day, the outcome more than likely would have been much better. From my checkride, I learned the value of patients and why it is better to wait for things. I know this lesson will prevent me from making that mistake again, as well as influence my choices in college and beyond.

Characteristics define who we are. For me, that characteristic is a strong work ethic. Every day I try to do the best I can no matter where that may be. Whether I’m on a trail for cross country, sitting in a classroom, or working at my job, I always give my very best effort. Doing my best gives me an advantage. If I work hard, it usually pays off. This will give me an advantage in the real world as well. If I can give my best effort every day of my life, I know I can achieve my dreams of becoming a pilot, and staying physically fit as well as helping others in need. While giving my best effort from here on out would be great, I have always had a strong work ethic. When I was eleven years old, my brother and I thought it would be a good idea to start mowing lawns to make money to help save for our college tuition. When we started, it was tough--really tough. There were a lot of people that didn’t really think we could do a good job because of our age. It took us two to three years to establish ourselves and get to six weekly lawn jobs. At the end of that season, however, we managed to finally purchase a zero-turn lawn mower, which allowed us to mow even more lawns. The year after that, we made enough money to buy a truck, and now, three years later, we have worked our way up to more than twenty-five lawns per week, on top of handling all of our responsibilities with school and sports. The only reason we were able to buy a lawnmower, a truck, and equipment, was because we worked hard to get it. Along the way, we had to learn to make compromises. We often found ourselves giving up weekends and free time in order to get lawns done. The early mornings, the late nights, the grease stains and sweat were done to achieve something we wouldn’t see for years to come. We also learned a lot about customer service and negotiating with people. We had customers few and far between who were not completely satisfied with our work. We had to learn to negotiate a settlement in a professional manner no matter how the customer treated us. All of these skills jell together to help me become a better person in college and beyond. College is expensive, but I know in the end it will all be worth it. I know I am going to succeed because I love aviation and flying airplanes. I am really looking forward to college because of all the new people I will meet, the change of scenery, and most importantly, the opportunity to learn about something I am passionate about. After college, I really want to become a flight instructor, get into an airline, and ultimately start my own charter service to get people to where they need to go. I already have some experience in starting a business, and I know it will be something I enjoy doing. It will take a long time to get there, but if I work hard enough, I can make it happen. It may take more than two to three years, but just like working up to that point, I know I can do it. All because I have a strong work ethic.

Thank you for considering me for this scholarship, I currently hold a private pilot certificate and a first-class medical certificate. I have 72.2 hours total in a Cessna 152. (23.9 hours Pilot in Command) I chose to pursue aviation ever since I first went to Airventure Oshkosh in 2018. At the time I was not old enough to begin training, but I absolutely loved the idea of being involved in aviation and making it my career. I didn't know at the time that I wanted to become a pilot specifically, but after taking an intro flight as well as going back to Oshkosh the following year; I soon realized I had a true passion for flying airplanes. In my career, I hope to first become a flight instructor to build time and help others achieve their own dreams in aviation. From there I would really like to become an airline or cargo pilot and work my way up to becoming a captain. Towards the end of my career, I hope to start my own charter service. I also like the idea of being my own boss, thus incorporating that into my passion for aviation would be really amazing to accomplish. Aviation means everything to me. Every time I fly, I feel free and I enjoy it more and more each time. So far, I have met amazing people such as flight instructors as well as other pilots that have made the experience all that more enjoyable. There are just so many different paths within aviation to take that it is hard to really decide for sure. While I said becoming an airliner or cargo pilot would be my dream, I think I would be happy with any job as a pilot, even some that I haven't thought of yet. Aviation is also important to me because of the possibility of visiting places I wouldn't be able to travel to normally. Whether that happens on a flight with an airliner or personally in smaller airplanes, it would certainly be an enjoyable experience. Aviation has taught me a lot about responsibility and the impacts of each decision I make. This has made me a much better pilot as well as a better person. Aviation has impacted my life positively and I hope I can continue learning and helping others find their passion as well. Thank you again for considering me for this scholarship.