Justin David Valle Scholarship

I have had a love for baseball since five years of age. At the age of eight this was taken away from me. The one outlet for forgetting all the family trauma I was going through. I had a father that was addicted to drugs and was often absent from my childhood. At the age of eight years old at a routine child well check at doctor, my family was told that my blood pressure was high and advised us to go see a cardiologist. A couple weeks later we went for the pediatric cardiologist appointment and I met Dr. Goldstein, from Austin pediatric cardiologist. He listened to my heart, took my blood pressure and thought he heard a heart murmur. The doctor then asked my mom to let him get a sonogram to appease him. He told us that the sonogram would be no more than ten minutes. I watched an entire movie while the lady just kept clicking away. I knew no better, but my moms face said it all. I could see the panic on her face. After one long hour, and watching the entire movie of Nemo. Dr. Goldstein came in to tell us that I did not have a heart murmur, but we would have a long road ahead of us. From that day on, my life changed forever. I was told that I needed to go to Dell Children’s hospital to have a contrast cat scan and mri. He suspected I was missing my left coronary artery. My mom had millions of questions and then asked to speak to the doctor alone. I knew something big was happening. We got in the car to go home and right away the hospital card to tell us to be there the very next day. The only main clear thing I remember is being told that I could no longer participate in baseball. I was playing club select baseball. I couldn’t even participate in pe class at school. I was shoved around to so many doctors within the next couple of years. Depressed was something I was learning the feeling of. My father was addicted to drugs and it took him away from so much of my childhood. I was angry but determined to not let it affect my success. This is where baseball came in. For a couple of years I was forced not to play, then after many many visits to doctors and specialists and no signs of my health being compromised I begged my mom to let me play again. Dr. Goldstein made us sign off on this, but soon I was back on the field. This second chance to do something I love has made me push hard for the things I love. I have a goal and will accept nothing less. I continue to work hard. I have even made the red-shirt program with Blinn. My goal in life is to be successful and to make my family proud. My fad has since passed away, but I still would love to show him and my mom what I’m capable of. I would very much appreciate the opportunity to help me with funds to make this happen.