My mom is truly a trouper. She has raised 4 kids as a single mother. Her first husband passed away, and my father divorced her. She has not won a good deck of cards when it comes to the game of life. Even with those obstacles, and the many others that she faced that would be too long to list, she has worked hard to get around them and succeed in life. My mom got married first when she was 17, had her first kid when she was 18, and then had another at 19. Although she was a teen mom, she didn't allow that to stop her. She worked hard to provide for my sisters and be the best mom that they could have. Their dad sadly passed away at a young age, causing her to have to care for her kiddos herself, no matter the struggle, she made it work. Then she met my father, got married to him, and had my brother and me. My father then ended up divorcing her and has taken her to court many times. He does not provide child support anymore, which basically means she was again, raising kids on her own. Throughout my whole life, she has worked hard to provide for my brother and me. She hasn't let anything stop her. My mother had a dream to become a teacher. With the death of her first husband, she ended up having to work full time so did not complete college right away. She instead, went back to school at 50 years old. It may have taken her some time, but she reached her dream and graduated in 2019. Her determination is something that inspires me to reach my dreams as well. All of these struggles my mom has had, makes me want to provide for her later on. I want to finish school, have a stable job, and repay my mom for all the hard work she has done to provide for her kids. She deserves it. Without her, I wouldn't be the strong capable woman I am today. She has significantly impacted the person I am today. I would never be able to complete half the things I have done if it weren't for her compassion and ability to help me as I went through school. I want to reach my dreams just as she had reached hers and try to later not only help her but also help my future kids in the same way she has helped me.

My name is Cassidy Jones, I'm 19 years old and have known I want to work in the health care field for what feels like my entire life. After getting divorced, my mom moved into the house that I currently still live in. Right next door lived a boy that my older sister had thought was cute. Why is this relevant you may ask? My sister and that boy ended up having a baby. Less than halfway through her pregnancy she got diagnosed with preeclampsia. Long story short, she ended up bad enough that they had to have an emergency c-section 16 weeks early. With the help of those healthcare workers, not only did my sister survive, my nephew did as well. He was as small as my hand, my mom's old wedding band fit up his arm to his shoulder. Today, this same boy is 11 years old. He is as rambunctious as any other boy his age, and today has no lasting problems associated with his premature arrival. The people that were there, working on my sister and nephew, saving their lives, all left an impression on me. They helped my family through such a difficult time and saved my family members' lives. From that moment on, I have worked tremendously hard for what I want. I studied hard throughout school. When I got to high school I took rigorous classes to try and get prepared for college. I made it through my high school career with getting mostly A's with the exception of a couple B's. I joined extracurriculars such as HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America), KC Healthtracks, Leadership, Student Council, and Cheer. All of which prepared me for my college career and future work career as well. HOSA was my favorite, as I placed 3rd in my state competition and was able to go to internationals at Disney World! I learned a lot of helpful skills from high school. Time management, leadership, communication, and work ethic, all of which are skills that will help me with my future. As I was going through this time in my life, I struggled with figuring out what exact path I wanted to take. Did I want to become a Physician? Or how about a Nurse? Physician Assistant? I didn't know, but I researched multiple different careers. I had at first settled with a PA. It met my goals in life as well as having a fantastic job satisfaction rating. Unfortunately, I had one issue. I had been diagnosed with an essential tremor. Although it's not huge, it made things difficult. With certain fine motor movements, I had issues with my hands shaking along with my voice shaking when trying to do things such as speeches. I tried finding a solution to this obstacle. What worried me most was using things such as scalpels and needles. I bought a suture practicing kit and worked on trying to do sutures well even with my hands shaking. It didn't work as hoped. I honestly was nervous about working on patients with this problem, as I didn't want to cause more harm than good. After some research, I decided sonography would be a good path. No needles or sutures are needed, and I still get to help people the way my family was helped and reach my goal of helping the community one patient at a time.

My name is Cassidy Jones, I'm 19 years old and have known I want to work in the health care field for what feels like my entire life. My family has its challenges, my parents divorced when I was pretty young before I was in school. With those challenges also comes all the opportunities that arose from it as well. My life wouldn't be anywhere near the same if they had chosen to stay together. After getting divorced, my mom moved into the house that I currently still live in. Right next door lived a boy that my older sister had thought was cute. Why is this relevant you may ask? My sister and that boy ended up having a baby. Less than halfway through her pregnancy she got diagnosed with preeclampsia. Long story short, she ended up bad enough that they had to have an emergency c-section 16 weeks early. With the help of those healthcare workers, not only did my sister survive, my nephew did as well. He was as small as my hand, my mom's old wedding band fit up his arm to his shoulder. Today, this same boy is 11 years old. He is as rambunctious as any other boy his age, and today has no lasting problems associated with his premature arrival.The people that were there, working on my sister and nephew, saving their lives, all left an impression on me. They helped my family through such a difficult time and saved my family members' lives. From that moment on, I have worked tremendously hard for what I want. I studied hard throughout school. When I got to high school I took rigorous classes to try and get prepared for college. I made it through my high school career with getting mostly A's with the exception of a couple B's. I joined extracurriculars such as HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America), KC Healthtracks, Leadership, Student Council, and Cheer. All of which prepared me for my college career and future work career as well. HOSA was my favorite, as I placed 3rd in my state competition and was able to go to internationals at Disney World! I learned a lot of helpful skills from high school. Time management, leadership, communication, and work ethic, all of which are skills that will help me with my future. As I was going through this time in my life, I struggled with figuring out what exact path I wanted to take. I researched multiple different careers. I had at first settled with a PA. It met my goals in life as well as having a fantastic job satisfaction rating. Unfortunately, I had one issue. I had been diagnosed with an essential tremor. Although it's not huge, it made things difficult. With certain fine motor movements, I had issues with my hands shaking along with my voice shaking when trying to do things such as speeches. I tried finding a solution to this obstacle. What worried me most was using things such as scalpels and needles. I bought a suture practicing kit and worked on trying to do sutures well even with my hands shaking. It didn't work as hoped. I honestly was nervous about working on patients with this problem, as I didn't want to cause more harm than good. After some research, I decided sonography would be a good path. No needles or sutures are needed, and I still get to help people the way my family was helped and achieve my goal.

If I had to choose one person in my life who is a role model for me, I'm not sure I could do it. There are so many people who have left an impression on me. Many are family members, but who I am going to talk about today is not one. I want to talk about a group of people actually. A group of people that not only shaped the person I am today but practically shaped my whole future and all my life goals. When I was younger, my older sisters had 5 kids altogether. One of my sisters had gotten severe preeclampsia while pregnant. Due to this complication, she ended up having to have my nephew 16 weeks early. I was young, but not young enough not to realize what was happening. My sister's life was in danger. Along with my newborn premie nephew's life. There were many long nights, surgeries, and scares. It all left its mark on me. There were many doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers that helped my family during this time. Today I'm going to talk about them. They shaped my future in a way that I am extremely thankful for. They saved my sister and nephew's lives. Without them, my family wouldn't be the same it is today. That 16-week premature baby that my sister delivered, which was as small as my hand and could fit a ring up to his shoulder, is now 11 years old. He is just as rambunctious as anyone else his age. He has no long-term effects from his premature birth. This is all because of the amazing job that those doctors, nurses, and others did. This is what led me to be interested in the health care field. As I grew up, I researched careers that interested me. I was interested in many things, but growing up around kids also helped me realize I want to work with them as well. At first, with those thoughts in mind, I decided I want to become a pediatrician. Unfortunately, early in middle school, I was diagnosed with a hereditary essential tremor. This specifically affects the steadiness of my hands. I knew I had a chance of developing it but was hoping I wouldn't as it would prove quite a difficult obstacle to overcome. With this news, I worked on practicing for my future career. I bought a suture practicing kit to work with. My hands shaking worried me when doing such things as using needles. I had hoped that practicing and trying to work around the tremors would work. Sadly it didn't help enough. I don't feel comfortable working with patients when it comes to using needles and other things like scalpels. I felt like I potentially could cause more injury than help. So I did more research. How could I work in healthcare without sharp objects? This is when I stumbled upon sonography. I can work in healthcare, without the use of sharp objects. I can work with expecting mothers as they bring babies into the world. It covers all my goals in life. I applied to a sonography school, but the cost is hard to cover. Even with this issue, I know I have come this far, I have worked through all other obstacles. Just like those doctors and nurses who worked hard to save my family members' lives, and how they did not give up, I'm going to use that same determination to get to my goals in life.

I believe my greatest achievement to date is the time I got 3rd place in my state HOSA competition which got me a free trip to Disney World! For those who don't know, HOSA stands for Health Occupation Students of America. I joined this club my sophomore year of high school and it was by far my all-time favorite activity to do in school. We got many opportunities through this club to observe many different health careers as well as try many different aspects of health careers ourselves. It also provided us students with an opportunity to compete in the state competition. All my life I have known I wanted to work in the healthcare field..... Okay, you got me, maybe not all my life, but since elementary school. Which to a 19-year-old is practically my whole life. I'm just kidding, although I have known from a pretty young age I wanted to work in medicine. This club helped me solidify that want as well. I enjoyed every aspect of the club and honestly wish it was something I could still do in college. Each year we would go to a state competition. There were many different categories of things you could compete in such as emergency medicine, medical terminology, and many more options. My chosen category was Human Development. I was fascinated (and still am) by how the body grows over time. To me, it was the most interesting to learn how we grow from just two cells into a full human being. I studied the ways of human development vigorously. Luckily thanks to that dedication, I went into the test feeling confident about my ability to place higher than at least most of those testing against me. That feeling would be right as I placed 3rd out of my group and obtained a spot to nationals in Disney World. Thanks to that experience, I got to go to a once in a life time event in Disney World. I got to meet many people along with learn about different projects those students had put together that related to the innovation of healthcare. Not only that but I also got to explore Magic Kingdom as well. What I have learned from this is that I can do anything I put my mind to. I worked hard to achieve my goal of placing in state. I ended up obtaining that goal due to my hard work. I learned that I love medicine even more than I thought. As I was "studying" for this test, it didn't really feel like studying at all. I was having a lot of fun learning about the human body. So not only can I do anything I put my mind to, but I also know now that I am for sure putting my mind to something that I can see me doing my whole life. This whole experience taught me to keep working hard for my goals, specifically to work in the healthcare field. No matter what obstacles try to stop me, my determination to overcome them and reach what Ive dreamed of is stronger than any obstacle. I fully believe that in just a couple years, I will have reached the life I have dreamed of and worked hard to achieve. One step at a time, I have continued to work towards that dream and I will continue to do so as just like what happened with that test, hard work pays off in the long run.

I find my determination for my goals my most valuable quality. I have had a goal to reach that I have envisioned for myself from elementary school. Each step in the journey of my life I have made to reach that goal. I have had many setbacks, physical, mental, and financial but have not let any of those deter me from what I want. In fact, I have used those obstacles to better myself and empower myself in a way that helps me later reach those goals. My most notable setback was when I got diagnosed with an essential tremor. For those who don't know what that is, it is an involuntary shaking. It can affect different things for different people. For me, it affects mostly the fine motor movements of my hands as well as my voice. The goal that I have had since elementary school was to work in the medical field. I have had two family members affected by preeclampsia, my sister who was in the hospital for months, and my nephew who was born 16 weeks early. Through the help of doctors and nurses, not only did my sister survive, but my nephew survived as well with few complications. He's now 11 and one of the many reasons I want to work in the healthcare field. Why is this relevant you may ask? Well, let's go back to my tremor. I at first wanted to become a physician. After the tremor diagnosis, I realized that becoming a physician may not be best for me as using sharp objects such as needles and sutures with a tremor may have the potential to cause more harm than good if I can't keep the shaking under control. At that time I was struggling to figure out what my next step would be. I still want to work in the healthcare field, but didn't want to harm anyone. I didn't let this stop me though, as I continued to do research about different medical jobs and found sonography. I can work in this field, and the tremors won't have as big of an effect, and I still reach my goal. Next is more of a universal setback, Covid. Covid has impacted many lives. For me, it impacted my schooling the most. Online learning was difficult as I don't think anyone was truly prepared for it, including teachers. Communication was hard to obtain at this point which made it difficult to get the help I needed for class. Nevertheless, I use my online resources to help me with that issue, and through this event learned how to work around situations like that. Lastly, is my financial setback. I have worked long and hard to obtain my goal, I am just a couple of years away from it as well. I have my schooling with a sonography program set up and have been accepted to it. Now all I need is to figure out funding for it. I feel great knowing I have this determination inside me that has helped me with past setbacks. I also feel determined to get past this last part that blocks my journey to my end goal. I'm, so close I can feel it. To overcome this last obstacle I have been applying to as many scholarships as possible, and plan to apply to many more to cover the costs of my dream. I won't let this last issue stop me from becoming what I envisioned.