Several activities have significantly influenced my life, including my dedication to my Cross-Country team, job-shadowing work, and volunteer service through my church. These efforts have given me attributes I am most proud of and provided me with invaluable learning experiences. I have run Cross Country and Track for four years, and this experience has been very impactful. I have gained many valuable lessons from both my coach and my teammates throughout these years. My coach is one of my biggest role models and taught me how to overcome all the obstacles I face. At first, I thought this just applied to the races and practices I participate in each week; however, now I've come to realize that he has also guided me to becoming a better person, not just an athlete. My teammates have become some of my closest friends and the girls on our team have supported me through some of my toughest races and personal challenges outside of running. Together, we won a State Championship for our region last year and placed first at the Regional Meet. This took hours of hard work through our practices and workouts but it was worth it to celebrate this accomplishment in the end. While I will miss being a part of this incredible team, I have learned countless lessons and built lasting relationships through this journey. Job shadowing has also been a remarkable experience for me and led to my future aspirations to become a Radiologist or Surgeon. I have spent over thirty hours in the operating room, observing various surgeries, which gave me a better understanding of medical knowledge and the skills required to become a successful doctor. I have always been interested in anatomy and biology, but this experience in the operating room is what sparked my dream of going to medical school. Working with the surgical team taught me how to work effectively as a team, even in high-pressure situations. Additionally, I developed essential problem-solving skills for the healthcare field by witnessing them performed firsthand by the Surgeon. I plan to continue making a positive impact by working hard and achieving my goals of being a physician and providing for my patients. Lastly, my experience volunteering has played an immense role in my life. I began volunteering with my church last year, and since then, my passion for helping others has quickly grown. I work in the food pantry at Nimmo United Methodist Church to help organize bags of food and canned goods and provide for local families in need. I enjoy helping in the food pantry because we directly see our impact within our community. One of my most treasured experiences being part of the food pantry staff is on distribution days where we hand out the bags. I cherish connecting with each family and talking with them as I load their cars with the bags. I look forward to seeing familiar faces each week, especially the kids who eagerly await each visit to the food pantry. They often show us pictures and toys and are always excited to look through the bags. I plan to continue this service as a doctor by serving my patients with the same selflessness and continuing to volunteer through my church.

From a young age, I have always been fascinated by anatomy and medical studies. While many children my age were interested in toys and games, I loved the skeletal and muscular system. This dream of working in the medical field was sparked when my mom was studying to become a Surgical Assistant. I enjoyed her company since I was still very young, so I would work on animal puzzles and color in my princess coloring books next to her while she studied. Eventually, this led to my curiosity about what she was studying and I began to wonder what was in her textbooks. One particular book that was my favorite was the skeletal system textbook, the one I would reach for first and I challenged myself to learn the name of each bone. I was amazed by how these muscles and bones fit into the perfect place, like the puzzle I had been working on earlier. This interest stayed with me as I grew older and I started job-shadowing in the operating room to witness surgeries. Watching the surgeon and surgical team work looked like an art form to me, the tools dancing and spinning in their hands as they performed intricate stitching. Since then, I began to see surgery as an art, not just a career. Soon after that, I knew I wanted to become a Surgeon or Radiologist because of my lifelong interest and shadowing experience. My passion for volunteering has also guided me into a career in the medical field because of my love for helping others. Most of my hours are spent volunteering at Nimmo United Methodist Church, where we have both a food pantry and a giving garden. Through the food pantry, I show my devotion to serving through distributing food to families within our community. Being a part of the food pantry staff allows me to directly see the impact we are making within the community. We often see the same families every two weeks; their gratitude and joy towards us make the time we spend working hard worth every second. Working with these families also enables me to learn something from them each time I volunteer. For example, one of the women who I see regularly is deaf, and she always teaches us a new word in sign language. The most memorable to me was when she taught us how to sign “Merry Christmas” during the holiday season. Overall, the experience I gained from volunteering at the food pantry, along with all of my hours spent in the operating room, showed me exactly why I aspired to be in healthcare: to help others.

My name is Katie Thompson and I am a Senior at Ocean Lakes High School. I am most passionate about volunteering, biology, and running. These aspects of my life are shaped by my family and interests so they are very important to me. The way that I most impact my community with my volunteer experience is through my church, Nimmo United Methodist Church. I am a member of their Youth Group where this summer, we served as volunteers during a Vacation Bible School to provide dinner for the children, make arts and crafts with them, and organize games to entertain them. The church also has a food pantry and giving garden where I have spent hours helping. I have spent most of my volunteer hours in the food pantry where hosted Project 5,000 to collect food to give to families in need within the community. I helped organize these boxes and transport them to where they will be given out. I also help organize all the food from donations or the Boy Scouts. My interest in biology started from a very early age and is a subject that I still enjoy. My fascination with the structure of the human body and how each part has a specialized function began when I was five years old. I would study my mom’s Anatomy textbooks as if they were my own coloring books and try to memorize where each bone fit into place, like an intricate puzzle. Later, I furthered my love for the medical field and spent over thirty hours shadowing a plastic surgeon and scrubbing into cases. This broadened my knowledge of anatomy and sparked my dream of becoming a physician. Now, my career goal is to become a radiologist or surgeon because of my life-long interest in biology and educational shadowing experience. Lastly, I have run cross country and track for four years at my high school and I have grown to love running. My teammates have become my closest friends and we celebrated a state championship together last fall. This was very challenging for our team but we all worked together to achieve our win. Running itself has taught me the skills and endurance that I use in my everyday life. I am currently training for my first half marathon and am always striving to make progress as a runner. This scholarship would benefit me because I plan to complete four years of Medical School after four years of undergraduate. The cost of this schooling exceeds the money that my parents can provide and college and Medical School are known for being very expensive. However, it is important to me that I find a way to pay for this education because being in the medical field is my lifelong dream. I have always been very interested in anatomy and I knew I wanted to practice as a physician from very early on. This is still my dream, and I have spent over thirty hours shadowing a plastic surgeon, After this experience, I know that I belong in the operating room and will thrive as a surgeon or radiologist.

It is widely known that members of the military go through intense physical training and face hostile, war-like conditions to serve and protect our country. Veterans are some of the most respected individuals and their lives are not easy as they often undergo deployments, moves, physical injuries, and mental hardships. As the child of two service members I witnessed this all first-hand, and throughout my whole life. Consequently, growing up as a military child shaped my life and contributed to who I am today. Both of my parents served in the Navy; my mom was a chemist for nine years and my dad was a nuclear engineer and F-18 pilot, serving for twenty-two years. As their child, I also grew and learned many valuable skills from their training. Being a military child was not easy and came with many challenges, but I benefited from the experience and used the knowledge to my advantage. Throughout the majority of my childhood, my family endured many moves across the country due to my dad being an active-duty member of the Navy. We had to pack up all of our belongings and leave our home five times in just four years; starting in my birthplace in Bremerton, Washington, and ending in my current hometown of Virginia Beach. This repeated change was difficult for me, I left my childhood friends and favorite places behind and moved to scary, unknown places. After each move, I made new friends and had to find my place in their social groups, providing me with skills that still serve me today. Now, as I start to transition from the comforts of my high school and home in Virginia Beach to a brand new lifestyle in college, the skills I gained from being a military dependent will help me embrace the change and thrive as I shift to a new environment. Since my dad was a fighter pilot for much of the United States War with Afghanistan, he underwent month-long deployments overseas in 2002 and again from 2011 to 2012. I was only five years old during his second deployment and had to find ways to connect with our dad, despite the hundreds of miles between us. One of my favorite memories was watching the videos he sent of himself reading bedtime stories to my sister and me. We treasured these videos and watched them every night before we went to bed, it felt as if he were there reading to us. He also brought along two stuffed animals, one of mine and one of my sister’s, and sent us many pictures of them throughout his trip. I learned how to overcome challenges and endure many hardships that were yet to come. I also acquired effective problem-solving skills when having to find unique ways to communicate with my dad. Overall, being a military child was very emotionally demanding, but it taught me valuable lessons, which benefit myself and my community. I learned how to adapt quickly to change as we moved many times, endure various mental hardships, and serve my community and if it wasn't for my parents' Navy service I wouldn't be the person I am today. Their service and my military background built my appreciation for anyone serving in the military, or those who served in the past, now that I understand what they and their families go through. These challenges that I’ve faced have made me proud to be the daughter of two Navy veterans and I use all that I’ve gained from my upbringing as I face new obstacles in life.