Mark Neiswander "110" Memorial Scholarship

The saying "Distance makes the heart grow fonder" is true. Since moving, I constantly find pieces of my childhood hometown in everything I love. I was born and raised in Urbana, Ohio, just like my parents and their parents before them. I always knew I lived in a small town, but I never realized how small until college. To this day, I am still creating new ways to describe Urbana on a map when people ask where I am from. Like most teenagers, I was sure I would leave for college, see what was on the other side of the cornfields surrounding town, and never want to come back. But over the past year, I have experienced quite the opposite. As I continue to grow and learn more about myself, I find the town that raised me is deeply embedded into who I am. Life is about making mistakes and learning from them, and I have spent over 18 years learning all of mine in one place. I learned how to be hard-working from my high school coaches. I learned to face my fears while showing horses at the county fair. I learned the value of service repairing local homes with my church youth group. The community I had taught me lessons I may not be the same person without. The community you get from living in a small town is priceless in a way that only people who have lived in one will understand. When deciding on a college, I chose Ohio University because it reminded me of home. The local shops and brick downtown buildings bring me a comforting nostalgia. I see remnants of Urbana everywhere I look. My time at Ohio University has affirmed for me more than ever that I want to spend my life helping others. People in small, rural towns are impacted disproportionately by poverty, poor infrastructure, unemployment, etc. I want to use my education to help my hometown and others like it. Small towns like mine have beautiful communities which deserve access to quality resources. As a first-generation student, I have the luxury of higher education and am aware that many people do not. I want to use this privilege to help the marginalized groups society forgets about because those are the people who make the world go round. I hope to one-day influence someones life as much as the people of Urbana have influenced mine.