My name is Ben, and I am a high school wrestler. I have wrestled for 13 years, and to me, it has become a part of life, like going to school or hanging out with friends. Wrestling has helped me improve not only physically, but mentally as well. I have learned the value of discipline and a good work ethic. I have learned to push myself beyond what most athletes go through in their sports. As Dan Gable said, "Once you have wrestled, everything else in life is easy". There have been many practices that have pushed me to total exhaustion and at the same time left me feeling extremely accomplished. Even outside of practice, the relationships and connections that I have made have helped me through difficult times, like transferring to a new school. The same qualities that I have learned in wrestling have made me a better student as well. Being able to balance the workload of maintaining a 104 GPA while completing 12 AP classes and the additional wrestling that I do on top of our normal practices is not easy. However, I always find a way to do it, and it has really improved my time management skills and discipline. This has not only shaped my present, but has also helped shape my future career goals. I am going to college with the goal of completing my masters in mechanical engineering in four years, which is no easy task. It will take a lot of extra classes, extra hours, and a very careful balance between wrestling and school to attain this goal. However, as I go through college and life beyond college, I know that the lessons I have learned from wrestling will serve me well in my job search and work life. I know how to work with a team and as an individual. I have good time management, a great work ethic, and resilience. I want a career that will push me the same way wrestling has, and not let me settle for a life that just gets me by. As a wrestler, I have won an individual state medal, a team state medal, and been named Scholar Athlete for wrestling for our school and for our league. While these awards are great, and it is nice to see all of my hard work come to fruition, I know that the lessons that I have learned from wrestling and connections that I have made through wrestling are worth more than any medal or award that I could win.

To me, wrestling is a sport that is a family, despite the individual nature of it. When I transferred to Easton Area High School my freshman year, I didn’t know anyone, and making friends wasn’t very easy during COVID. My first true group of friends was the wrestling team. That year I spent countless hours with them in practices, morning workouts, lifting, tournaments and matches. I received rides from many of my teammates, stayed over at their houses, went on many road trips, and participated in activities outside of wrestling with them. As my career has continued, I have met a lot of great coaches, wrestlers, and people and they have helped me both on and off the mat to become a better person than I was when I came into high school. While I have improved greatly as a wrestler during my time in high school, I have improved more as a person and created relationships that will last me a lifetime. Winning this scholarship will allow me to continue wrestling in college, and ease the financial stress during my college career so that I can focus on wrestling and academics. Since I am not receiving any help from my parents with my tuition, I will have to come up with the money for college on my own. As I pursue a degree, the last thing that I want to be focused on is how I am going to pay for college. With this scholarship, the concern about how my life will be affected by debt after college will be eased. It also affords me the opportunity to be more free in what school I choose. Without outside scholarships, my options are very limited as to the schools I can choose to go to, since I am guided by the financial package offered. Instead, I can now choose from a wider range of schools that I feel are a better fit for me, rather than concentrating on the school that offers me the most money. I know that my goals of becoming an NCAA All-American and graduating with a Masters degree in mechanical engineering will not be easy nor inexpensive, especially at a school that provides quality opportunities to reach these goals such as good coaches, practice partners, teachers, and updated engineering and wrestling facilities. However, every little bit of help makes getting to those goals easier and I am truly grateful for that.

My name is Ben, and I am a high school wrestler. I have wrestled for 13 years, and to me, it has become a part of life, like going to school or hanging out with friends. Wrestling has helped me improve not only physically, but mentally as well. I have learned the value of discipline and a good work ethic. I have learned to push myself beyond what most athletes go through in their sports. As Dan Gable said, "Once you have wrestled, everything else in life is easy". There have been many practices that have pushed me to total exhaustion and at the same time left me feeling extremely accomplished. The same qualities that I have learned in wrestling have made me a better student as well. Being able to balance the workload of maintaining a 104 GPA and the extra wrestling that I do on top of our normal practices is not easy. However, I always find a way to do it, and it has really improved my time management skills and discipline. This has not only shaped my present, but has also helped shape my future career goals. As I go through college and life beyond college, I know that the lessons I have learned from wrestling will serve me well in my job search and work life. I know how to work with a team and as an individual. I have good time management, a great work ethic, and resilience. I want a career that will push me the same way wrestling has, and not let me settle for a life that just gets me by. My main interest when I'm not wrestling is running our fantasy leagues for wrestling. I run our fantasy football, NCAA wrestling picks pool, and our March Madness pool. I enjoy being able to bring people together, especially in activities that involve other sports. Every year, we have a draft party for our fantasy league where we play volleyball, basketball, go swimming, and hang out. Doing this has helped me grow my relationships with my teammates and coaches, and gives me an enjoyable outlet during the wrestling season. Our wrestling pool currently has about 20 people in it, and it is a great way to get everyone together after the season, when people start to drift off. These leagues are my favorite activities outside of wrestling, and help our team stick together.