Thank you for creating a scholarship for a Pennsylvania student in memory of your beloved Peter J. Musto. I immediately felt a connection to this scholarship after seeing Mr. Musto's picture and the Penn State gear - "WE ARE!" I am a student currently at Penn State's trade school - Pennsylvania College of Technology. Although we are considered the Wildcats, we definitely have close ties to the university and I am only 1 hour away from main campus! In terms of the relation to cancer, I lost my first grandparent, my grandfather, in 2020 during COVID to Pancreatic Cancer. It was the worst experience of my life. My grandfather did have some health issues, but we weren't really sure what was going on. His legs were retaining water and he was not feeling well. His skin started turning a shade of orange and then we found out the awful diagnosis - the "C" word. I will never forget the Christmas before he passed. It was during COVID. My grandmother told us that we could not come over for the holiday because once he was diagnosed, he had to be careful not to catch anything, especially COVID. So, on Christmas day, we planned a FaceTime call with him and my grandmother and cousins. The call was planned for 6 p.m. That night, at 4 p.m., my grandfather was rushed to the hospital. He was having fluid backing into his chest and could not breathe. Needless to say, we never had that FaceTime and five days later, he died. From the time of his diagnosis to his death was a total of a 10-day span. It all went so fast. We didn't have a chance to reminisce about old times, we didn't have a chance to say all the things we wanted to say. I never got to tell him about my future plans. This man, who attended all of my major hockey games and every main event in my life, was just GONE after 10 days of being ill. It was shocking, devastating, and really seemed unreal. The saddest part of the entire story is that it was right in the middle of COVID. We were not permitted into the ambulance, the hospital, and could not even visit him when he was dying. I can remember my mom mom crying hysterically while on the phone with the hospice nurse. She said, "Mr. Athey is actively dying, but I am here with him holding his hand." The nurse offered all of us to say goodbye to him over the phone, and I did. This was one of the worst days of my life. Minutes later, she told us he had passed away. I felt all of the air in my chest just collapse to my feet. It was truly devastating. Although I never got to see my grandfather or say goodbye, I am now 5 years later, still making him proud. I am about to graduate in May with my Associate's degree in Welding Technology and I will be his first grandchild with a college degree. I am interviewing for welding jobs and I am a hard worker that wants to do well with my future. Although I can't change what happened, I can continue to love my family, take care of my mom mom, and be a good human being. In memory of all of those that lost their lives to cancer, I pledge to help anyone that I can that is suffering and to be the best person I can be to make my grandfather proud.

Dementia. A word I thought I would never have to see come to life in my strong, independent, caring grandmother. The woman who helped my parents since my birth with driving me places, babysitting, hosting sleepovers, picking me up and dropping me off to school, playing with me, taking me shopping, going on all kinds of adventures, and spending time with me at their shore cottage. All of these memories stopped with this one word. Dementia. My grandmother developed not only Dementia but also Parkinson's Disease so not only am I just watching her mind slip away, but her body is also just breaking down. A woman who once stood tall and was always on the go, is now hunched over, can barely use a cane because she cannot remember newly learned tasks. A woman who knows everyone, would conversate with a stranger on the street, now can barely form and get out a sentence. This one word, Dementia cased us one big heartbreak. Thankfully, my grandmother still knows who I am. She remembers things from the past but she has trouble speaking about the present and the future. Having a conversation with her is very painful and she cannot put the right words together and often forgets what she is saying mid-sentence. We all handle her with the grace and dignity that she deserves, but I can see the pain behind her eyes and the sadness that was once my most favorite person. She tries so hard to be "normal" but she can't even hide it anymore. It is sad, devastation to see your grandmother slip away when she is still alive. We grieve, not at death, but at the loss of what was her life. The pain is indescribable. I myself am a student with a disability. I have had learning issues my entire life and was diagnosed with ADHD. It has truly impacted my life negatively in so many ways. It took me until high school to learn how to handle myself and my disability and to learn how to manage it. I work really hard to manage my issues and not let them impact my life. For that, I have been successful and will be graduating in May with an associate's degree in welding. I know I am not entering a neuroscience field or will not research dementia - I don't have the tools for this, but I do have a voice to be an advocate for change. My parents and I support research for this awful disease of Alzheimer's and also Parkinson's Disease. Both are debilitating - one to the mind, one to the body. I hope that one day, someone can find a cure to one of both of these diseases so that children like me don't have to watch our grandparents lose their ability to speak, to move, and to be the person I always remembered. I will continue to advocate for those that are capable of fighting these diseases and finding a cure.

I can recall getting pulled out of class in second grade and working individually with a teacher, who I later learned was a reading specialist. She had a way of teaching me to read that made me feel like we were just having fun with books, but I later learned that she was assigned to help me because I was considered a "primer" reader which was pre-school level when I was in second grade. Ms. Farrell spent so much time with me from short books with few words to longer books that were more challenging. She helped, encouraged, and supported me. Additionally, my mom would hit up every yard sale in town and buy book after book to read with me. By the end of second grade, I went from a primer reader to on grade level! I remember Mrs. Farrell giving me an award at the end of the year and saying that I was her biggest success story. Back then, I was happy to get a sticker and a certificate, but today, I realize just the immensity of that honor. I was a kid that was tested for special education not once, but twice, and was found to be in need of 504 services for accommodations due to ADHD. Before the doctors and psychologists could really figure out what was wrong and determining I had an attention issue, I was losing education quickly due to not being able to focus and learn. It was Mrs. Farrell who I attribute to keeping me from becoming disabled in the area of reading. After having her, I actually developed a liking for reading and began reading grade-level books on a regular basis. As I got older, my love for reading kind of went away, but it came back when I started reading things that really interested me. For example, I currently attend college in an associate's degree program for welding. I have big, fat welding books that if you showed me that as a kid, I would never think I could read it, but I tackle those books like a hungry animal - just eager to learn more and more about the field of welding. I don't so much read for enjoyment, but I do read to learn and read to expand my knowledge of the field I will be going into after graduation. My success in college has been focusing not just on getting by but excelling and I am doing that. As a child that started out barely able to read in second grade, I am now on the brink of graduation with my degree in welding. I am so proud of how far I have come and I thank Mrs. Farrell for teaching me to read and excel.

My mother's family is 100% Italian. My maternal grandfather's parents were born in Sicily (great grandmother) and Genoa (great grandfather). My maternal grandmother's parents were born in Guardiagrele (great grandmother) and Manoppelo (great grandfather). I definitely feel that I can relate to the values of Mr. Marcello Rosino in the areas of determination, resilience, and dedication. The diagnosis of ADHD used to feel like a ball and chain around my ankle. From the time I was little, I always knew I was different. I learned differently, I felt different from other kids, and I didn't feel I could keep up. Most people think ADHD is just an issue with attention, but I can tell you...it is much more. It messes up the way you think, the way you learn, makes you feel intense feelings whether they are good or bad, impacts relationships, and most importantly makes learning so much harder. If positive learning was a straight pathway, my road would be full of twists, turns, bumps, detours, dead ends, and mountains. Life as a kid with a disability was hard. It was something I sometimes wanted to give up on learning, doing, and even being. I struggled for a lot of years, but somewhere deep down, I knew I could be just as good than any normal learner. I had to work harder than the average person. Sometimes, I got angry about it, but eventually, I learned to accept myself for who I was. Once that day came, I began to flourish. When I learned to accept myself, I started really realizing my talents, my dreams, my abilities, and my future possibilities. I learned a lot from my woodshop teacher who NEVER looked at me with a label attached to me. He taught me woodworking and eventually taught me welding. I realized that my gifts were my hands! Although ADHD may have negative impacts, it also has many positive as well. I could build, sculpt, weld, and make things that no other student could do. I built an end table, a hockey table, a wooden wall shelf, and eventually a metal farm table with a wood insert that I designed on my own. In hockey, I was a top scorer and had what everyone called "silky hands" meaning I had great puck control and could maneuver around other players with ease. All of these years I focused on what I struggled with and never celebrated what I was good at! Eventually, I decided that I did not just want to get a trade certificate, I wanted to go to a trade college where I could earn an associate's degree with a trade. I am now in my second year of an associate's degree program in Welding Technology, I am holding a 3.16 GPA, I am a student member of the American Welding Association and Spark Force Manufacturing, and I have received several recognitions in the welding world and plan on getting a job as a full-time welder. I am so proud of how far I have come. It will also be my life-long goal to help other kids like me who may have been lost in the maze of understanding themselves and having belief in their abilities. I started a youth mentoring program for young hockey players to encourage them to find and reach their potential and I will continue encouraging and helping bring others up who may not feel like they have the ability to overcome their disability. It is possible, and I am proof!

Thank you for creating a scholarship for tradesman as well as honoring your beloved family member, David Hinsdale. I am currently in my second year as a Welding Technolgy major at Pennsylvania College of Technology. I will earn my associates degree in August, 2025. My interest in welding is attributed to my high school wood shop teacher. In my junior year of high school, I was looking into 4-year colleges where I could go to school and continue my ice hockey career. After visiting 15 colleges and meeting with 15 hockey coaches, I still could not decide why I actually wanted to go to college other than to play ice hockey. I reviewed each school, their majors, and nothing spoke to me. In my senior year, I applied to all 15 schools and then had a very honest conversation with my woodshop teacher, Mr. Moore. I told him that I didn't see myself going to a 4-year school to study anything and really was only excited about hockey. At that time, he took me into the back of the woodshop and said, "Dan, with your silky hands in hockey (a hockey term for good puck movement with your hands and wrists), you should be a welder. He showed me this small welding machine and taught me how to use it. From that point on, I realized that although I loved hockey, my talent was in my HANDS and my future would be with working with my hands. I was always a hard worker in school, but with ADHD, it did not come easy to me. When I was woodworking or welding, I realized that I felt like I had superpowers. I had a talent that surpassed my classmates and went beyond the English, Math, Science, and Social Studies classes. Once I realized my talent, there was no looking back! In my senior year of high school, I was in woodshop class and had to do a senior project out of wood from a list of items the teacher had in stock. I wanted to do a combination of woodworking with metal, so I asked him if I could create my own blueprint and build a metal farm table with a wooden insert. He allowed me to do this and my table came out perfectly - my parents have it in our house. My entire class was shocked that I was able to weld the table together after minimal training with the machine. I am so proud of that piece. It is where I really started to envision my future and my possibilities. In my current second year as a student, I have completed three welding internships and I am a member of the American Welding Society and the Sparkforce Metal Manufacturers. I have gone to many career fairs at my school and have already interviewed at two companies before my graduation. My plans are to become a welder upon graduation and go back to my high school each year and speak with the students in the shop classes and interested in the trades. If I can encourage and be a role model to other students with ADHD or learning disabilities or students that my not be confident in their abilities, I would like to encourage and show them that success is possible with hard work, determination, and belief in yourself. Once I become skilled, I hope to take young students under my wing and train them in the field to help give them a career, but most importantly the confidence to find a skill within themselves.

As a young child diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 9, I always struggled in school academically and socially. From Kindergarten on, no one knew what was wrong with me and I always felt different but could not figure out why. Education was always difficult, my family would get impatient with me, and I could see that teachers would work really hard with me, but I just wasn't getting it. This went on for years. I was tested for a learning disability, had my hearing checked, vision checked and had tutoring and reading services. It was still happening and I was struggling to learn. Finally in 4th grade, I was diagnosed with ADHD and my life started to change for the better. I had to take medicine, which I still take, to help me focus and I learned a lot of behavioral strategies to help. Along with having ADHD for me, unfortunately, came some depression and a lot of anxiety. I still deal with these things today. In my senior year of high school, I had a meltdown after being constantly bullied by a member of my Ice Hockey team. Ice hockey was really the ONLY place I felt confident and after meetings and tried resolutions with this kid, ultimately, my mental health could not handle it and I quit my most beloved sport. I was devastated and so was my family. I had to get into therapy because I was going down a dark path. As part of my recovery, I never did go back to that hockey team, but I did go back the rink and developed and implemented a mentoring program for younger athletes. I connected with coaches, had other players join as mentors, and we focused on mental health, respect for others/coaches/families/teammates, as the main goals. I ran this program for the remainder of my senior year and the program has even continued now that I graduated. The goal is to help other young players learn how to relate to each other better and avoid bullying. I was part of several mediations where I helped kids out of a bullying situation. In terms of my career goals, I am completing my second year of college for welding. After many difficult years, I not only made friends socially, but I also became academically independent with hard work, dedication, and belief in myself. Once I graduate, I hope to take other ADHD kids like me under my wing and teach them how to weld and be productive citizens! I want to continue paying it forward and helping other people like me to realize their potential and believe that they are capable. This scholarship would mean the world to me. I also will be getting involved with the blind youth community as my dad and I are planning to coach blind hockey in the Philadelphia, PA area. My dad is coaching this year and once I graduate from college next year, I too will become a coach to help blind children learn the sport of hockey and play in a league. It is a dream come true. This scholarship would help me tremendously to start paying my student loans once I become a welder. I will be $75,000 in debt once I graduate and this would really help me moving forward.

Thank you for creating a scholarship for those that recognizes the importance of mental health. My name is Dan Athey. I am in my second year of college at Pennsylvania College of Technology as a welding technology major. As a young person, I was diagnosed with ADHD and I struggled my entire life both academically and socially. I have always had to work hard for my grades and struggled in social settings to make friends or take a chance at talking to new people. These traits are still with me today, however, I strive beyond my comfort zone to do better and be better. Although I had some academic and personal struggles as a child and young adult, I always found my strength in the game of ice hockey. I played from the age of 8 all the way through high school and even became a hockey referee in high school. This sport was where I felt encouraged, important, and successful. Believe it or not, in my senior year of playing club hockey, I experienced a severe bullying situation. I talked to my coaches, parents, the bully, but it was relentless. Somehow, I let it destroy my entire last year of high school. I quit hockey, became depressed, and did not know if I could ever make it to college. There was a period of time where I was suicidal when my bully sent a group text to my entire team and told me to "KYS (kill yourself), the entire team hates you." Even though this was not true, none of my teammates came to my defense so after years of loyalty to hockey, I simply quit and walked away. It still makes me sick to think about that day. With encouragement, I went into counseling and tried to build myself up again. By the middle of my senior year, I decided that I was going to overcome and although I did not return to my club hockey team, I met with the owner of the club and developed my own mentoring program. I researched other athletic mentoring programs and created a curriculum for helping youth hockey players. I recruited some of my former teammates and began working with coaches, the president of the club, and other stakeholders to find out what they needed younger players to learn. The focus became on hockey rules and best play, but also on life values. I created lessons for our mentors to give to their teams from ages 8 to 14. These lessons included respect for coach, respect for peers, respect for family, how to be a teammate, how to encourage, how to lose with grace and win with pride, etc. Each of the mentors, including myself, took a team an taught the young players through lessons and most importantly, leading by example. My goal was to keep kids committed to their sport while also learning to be a good teammate so that no other player would experience the pain that I did. IT WORKED! The program was a great success and continues even though I graduated! As I head into the work world, I will continue to take younger people under my wing and encourage and help them see their potential. As a young boy, I never thought I would be where I am today, but here I am - successful in college and able to help others.

I am currently in my second year of college for welding technology. When I graduate, I will have an associate's degree. I chose this field because I quickly learned that my talents were right there in front of me - my hands. As a kid growing up with ADHD, I never felt success in the classroom, but by 9th grade, I started to better manage my symptoms and finding what I enjoy. I took a woodshop class for four years in high school and I made so many beautiful pieces with my hands - an end table with ceramic tile inset, a butcher block that I laser engraved, a hockey table-top game that I designed and built, a wooden shelf, a wooden clock, and the list continues. My teacher also noticed my talent and turned me on to welding. In my senior year, I went from welding three nuts together to designing, creating, and building a metal farm table with wooden inset. It was amazing and I was thrilled at what I was able to create with my mind and my hands. I turned my disability into my greatest strength and ability! This is when I ultimately made the decision to go on to trade school to get a degree in welding. I have been planning a career in this field since that senior year of high school. I did an internship in May of my senior year with a steel company and then they hired me full-time through the summer before I started college. I learned so many aspects of shop welding and even built an outdoor fire escape and railings for a shopping center. Once I left for school, they hired me back on all of my breaks and for the summer months. I learned so much more and then got a field placement learning outdoor construction and on-site steel welding. That was a scary start, being very high on structures and welding, but I learned to love it and really enjoyed my time learning that aspect of welding. Since then, I continue to keep contact with that company and I have gone to multiple career fairs at my school. I have pre-interviewed at a few industrial and manufacturing companies and hope that I will be employed right after graduation. I will be successful in this career because I am hungry to learn. I am eager, excited and dedicated to the trade. I show up early and leave late. I ask questions, ask the experienced people to teach me and I know that being willing to learn every day is a huge part of becoming successful. I realize that even after graduation, learning is life-long and I will always be willing to learn more and perfect my craft. I am a hard worker, don't use substances, and just fully dedicated to learning and growing in my trade. Success looks to me like the person who works hard, who does not accept failure and keeps going back at something if he/she cannot master it. Learning, asking, researching, trying, failing, and continuing to pursue IS all part of being successful. I want to learn from the best, train under those that work in the field and just be a sponge learning and contributing to the field of welding. I don't want welding to be my job. It is my passion and I will treat each day like that!

ADHD used to feel like a ball and chain around my ankle. From the time I was little, I always knew I was different. I learned differently, I felt different from other kids, and I didn't feel I could keep up. Most people think ADHD is just an issue with attention, but I can tell you...it is much more. It messes up the way you think, the way you learn, makes you feel intense feelings whether they are good or bad, impacts relationships, and most importantly makes learning so much harder. If positive learning was a straight pathway, my road would be full of twists, turns, bumps, detours, dead ends, and mountains. Life as a kid with a disability was hard. It was something I sometimes wanted to give up on learning, doing, and even being. I struggled for a lot of years, but somewhere deep down, I knew I could be just as good than any normal learner. I had to work harder than the average person. Sometimes, I got angry about it, but eventually, I learned to accept myself for who I was. Once that day came, I began to flourish. When I learned to accept myself for the good and bad, I started really realizing my talents, my dreams, my abilities, and my future possibilities. I learned a lot from my woodshop teacher who NEVER looked at me with a label attached to me. He taught me woodworking and eventually taught me welding. I was a hockey player also, and my game and skills also improved once I realized that I can and be just as good, if not better than my peers. I worked hard perfecting my game and also at working in wood and metal shop. Eventually, I realized that my gifts were my hands! Although ADHD may have negative impacts, it also has many positive as well. I could build, sculpt, weld, and make things that no other student could do. I built an end table, a hockey table, a wooden wall shelf, and eventually a metal farm table with a wood insert that I designed on my own. In hockey, I was a top scorer and had what everyone called "silky hands" meaning I had great puck control and could maneuver around other players with ease. All of these years I focused on what I struggled with and never celebrated what I was good at! Eventually, I decided that I did not just want to get a trade certificate, I wanted to go to a trade college where I could earn an associate's degree with a trade. I am now in my second year of an associate's degree program in Welding Technology, I am holding a 3.0 GPA, I am a student member of the American Welding Association and Spark Force Manufacturing, and I have received several recognitions in the welding world and plan on getting a job as a full-time welder. My school does not have hockey, but I joined a men's league and am enjoying that as well. I am so proud of how far I have come. It will also be my life-long goal to help other kids like me who may have been lost in the maze of understanding themselves and having belief in their abilities. I started a youth mentoring program for young hockey players to encourage them to find and reach their potential and I will continue encouraging and helping bring others up who may not feel like they have the ability to overcome their disability. It is possible, and I am proof!

I come from a long line of family union members in the trades, postal service, and even education. My great grandfather was a union plumber in Philadelphia local 690 as well as my great Uncle Dan (who I am named after). My dad was a long-standing member of the United States Postal Service Union for letter carriers and my mom is a 23-year veteran educator in PSEA - Pennsylvania State Education Association. As the son of two very hard-working parents, I learned in my high school years that I had a talent working with my hands. In high school, I took wood shop class and loved it so much. I built tables, shelves, hockey tables, butcher blocks, clocks, etc. I did so many projects, I exhausted what my teacher had in class. So by my senior year, he said he saw such a talent in me and wanted to teach me welding. In September, he showed me how to weld three little nuts and bolts together. By May, I designed my own blueprint and made a metal farm table with a wooden inset. Even I was amazed at the power in my hands! I always struggled academically as a child with ADHD, but once I got to high school, I learned to keep my attention under control and I also realized that I was not a kid with a "disability." I was a kid with many ABILITIES! Once I recognized that, there was no stopping me. I had dreams of going to a 4-year college and playing ice hockey, but I soon realized that my heart was in the trades. I re-routed that decision and went to a trade college where I could still earn a college degree with a trade. I am currently in my second year at Pennsylvania College of Technology and will earn an associate's degree in Welding Technology by May 2025. I am already looking into union opportunities at the steamfitters union in Philadelphia, PA as well as the iron workers union. With my welding experience, I think I would be a good fit for either one and I am hopeful once I graduate to apply and take the tests required for admittance. I am a firm believer in unions and I will continue to work toward the goal of acceptance into a union. Even if I have to build my resume for some time, I will learn as much as I can so I can be a well-rounded, prepared, and educated employee and will have the best chance of acceptance. I thank you for recognizing the trades as important contributors to society and I hope to one day let you know that I have indeed become a union welder!

I am currently in my second year as a Welding Technology major at Pennsylvania College of Technology. I will earn my associates degree in May, 2025. My interest in welding is attributed to my high school wood shop teacher. In my junior year of high school, I was looking into 4-year colleges where I could go to school and continue my ice hockey career. After visiting 15 colleges and meeting with 15 hockey coaches, I still could not decide why I actually wanted to go to college other than to play ice hockey. I reviewed each school, their majors, and nothing spoke to me. I didn't know what to do. In my senior year, I applied to all 15 schools and then had a very honest conversation with my woodshop teacher, Mr. Moore. I told him that I didn't see myself going to a 4-year school to study anything and really was only excited about hockey. At that time, he took me into the back of the woodshop and said, "Dan, with your silky hands in hockey (a hockey term for good puck movement with your hands and wrists), you should be a welder. He showed me this small welding machine and taught me how to use it. From that point on, I realized that although I loved hockey, my talent was in my HANDS and my future would be with working with my hands. I was always a hard worker in school, but with ADHD, it did not come easy to me. When I was woodworking or welding, I realized that I felt like I had superpowers. I had a talent that surpassed my classmates and went beyond the English, Math, Science, and Social Studies classes. Once I realized my talent, there was no looking back! In the spring of my senior year, my high school allowed students to do a one-month internship of their own finding. Any job was allowed. I got a job at a steel company and welded with them for one month. I did so well, they hired me full-time after I graduated. I worked the day after graduation up until the day before I left for college. I loved it and worked alongside every person in the building to learn as much as I could. In that time, my biggest accomplishments were that I built railings for a shopping center and also an external metal fire escape ladder for an apartment complex. Once I went to school, I kept in touch and they let me work during all of my holiday breaks and during the summer months. I worked my first summer indoors doing welding and my second summer I worked on site - learning steel beam installation on commercial properties. I already have a full resume and I am still in school! I have become a member of the American Welding Society and the Sparkforce Metal Manufacturers. I have gone to many career fairs at my school and have already interviewed at two companies before my graduation in May, 2025. I am ready for the welding world and can't wait until I find the right fit. I just want to learn as much as I can to expand my knowledge. I am currently in my last semester of getting my associates degree in Welding and have taken all types of welding courses so I am well-rounded and ready!

The trade I am pursuing is welding. I am currently a second year Welding Technology major hoping to receive my associate's degree this year in Welding. As a kid that grew up with ADHD, I always found education difficult. I struggled for so many years, but I also never gave up and I worked really hard. I finally started to figure out how to keep my attention in check by high school. This is where I really started to excel. I then took a woodshop class and learned that talent is not always learned by reading books. It is also learned and earned by working with your hands! I quickly picked up woodworking and built an end table, a clock, a butcher block, a hockey table, a wooden shelf, and so much more. I loved it so much that my teacher showed me the welding machine and from that point on, I was hooked. In September of my senior year, I welded 3 nuts together. By May, I designed and built my own metal farm table with a wooden insert. I realized that my dreams of 4-year college to play hockey were really not realistic and that I was made to do a trade. My goals for the future are SOOOO many! I want to learn as much as I can - I want to be the best welder I can be. I want to go in early and stay late every night. I want to learn from the best. I want experience and I want to be the best I can be. I want to take other kids like me under my wing and show them that your disability does not define you, nor does struggling in school mean that all of life will be a struggle. I always needed help up until high school and now, I am succeeding with Dean's list in my second year of college. Anything is possible with hard work, determination, and grit. When I graduate, I will come back to my home town of West Chester, PA. I plan to live at home and get a great job. I have already started applying and interviewing from companies that I have met at my school's college fair. I am hoping to find a job that will teach me as much about different types of welding that I can expand my knowledge and I plan to immediately start paying off my student loans while taking over my truck payments and insurance. I am hoping to ease the burden off my parents who have supported me so much over the years. Thanks for considering me for this scholarship. Scott sounds like an amazing family man and tradesman. I hope one day to be this good of a person myself, taking care of family and helping others with disabilities to learn a trade.

ADHD used to feel like a ball and chain around my ankle. From the time I was little, I always knew I was different. I learned differently, I felt different from other kids, and I didn't feel I could keep up. Most people think ADHD is just an issue with attention, but I can tell you...it is much more. It messes up the way you think, the way you learn, makes you feel intense feelings whether they are good or bad, impacts relationships, and most importantly makes learning so much harder. If positive learning was a straight pathway, my road would be full of twists, turns, bumps, detours, dead ends, and mountains. Life as a kid with a disability was hard. It was something I sometimes wanted to give up on learning, doing, and even being. I struggled for a lot of years, but somewhere deep down, I knew I could be just as good than any normal learner. I had to work harder than the average person. Sometimes, I got angry about it, but eventually, I learned to accept myself for who I was. Once that day came, I began to flourish. When I learned to accept myself for the good and bad, I started really realizing my talents, my dreams, my abilities, and my future possibilities. I learned a lot from my woodshop teacher who NEVER looked at me with a label attached to me. He taught me woodworking and eventually taught me welding. I was a hockey player also, and my game and skills also improved once I realized that I can and be just as good, if not better than my peers. I worked hard perfecting my game and also at working in wood and metal shop. Eventually, I realized that my gifts were my hands! Although ADHD may have negative impacts, it also has many positive as well. I could build, sculpt, weld, and make things that no other student could do. I built an end table, a hockey table, a wooden wall shelf, and eventually a metal farm table with a wood insert that I designed on my own. In hockey, I was a top scorer and had what everyone called "silky hands" meaning I had great puck control and could maneuver around other players with ease. All of these years I focused on what I struggled with and never celebrated what I was good at! Eventually, I decided that I did not just want to get a trade certificate, I wanted to go to a trade college where I could earn an associate's degree with a trade. I am now in my second year of an associate's degree program in Welding Technolgy, I am holding a 3.0 GPA, I am a student member of the American Welding Association and Spark Force Manufacturing, and I have received several recognitions in the welding world. My school does not have hockey, but I joined a men's league and am enjoying that as well. In May, 2025, I will be a college graduate with a trade degree. I am so proud of how far I have come. It will also be my life-long goal to help other kids like me who may have been lost in the maze of understanding themselves and having belief in their abilities. I started a youth mentoring program for young hockey players to encourage them to find and reach their potential and I will continue encouraging and helping bring others up who may not feel like they have the ability to overcome their disability. It is possible, and I am proof!

1. I am currently in my second year as a Welding Technolgy major at Pennsylvania College of Technology. I will earn my associates degree in May, 2025. 2. My interest in welding is attributed to my high school wood shop teacher. In my junior year of high school, I was looking into 4-year colleges where I could go to school and continue my ice hockey career. After visiting 15 colleges and meeting with 15 hockey coaches, I still could not decide why I actually wanted to go to college other than to play ice hockey. I reviewed each school, their majors, and nothing spoke to me. I didn't know what to do. In my senior year, I applied to all 15 schools and then had a very honest conversation with my woodshop teacher, Mr. Moore. I told him that I didn't see myself going to a 4-year school to study anything and really was only excited about hockey. At that time, he took me into the back of the woodshop and said, "Dan, with your silky hands in hockey (a hockey term for good puck movement with your hands and wrists), you should be a welder. He showed me this small welding machine and taught me how to use it. From that point on, I realized that although I loved hockey, my talent was in my HANDS and my future would be with working with my hands. I was always a hard worker in school, but with ADHD, it did not come easy to me. When I was woodworking or welding, I realized that I felt like I had superpowers. I had a talent that surpassed my classmates and went beyond the English, Math, Science, and Social Studies classes. Once I realized my talent, there was no looking back! 3. I have learned thinking out of the box and creativity since learning how to weld. In my senior year of high school, I was in woodshop class and had to do a senior project out of wood from a list of items the teacher had in stock. I wanted to do a combination of woodworking with metal, so I asked him if I could create my own blueprint and build a metal farm table with a wooden insert. He allowed me to do this and my table came out perfectly - my parents have it in our house. My entire class was shocked that I was able to weld the table together, the legs, and make a place for the wood to sit. I am so proud of that piece. It is where I really started to envision my future and my possibilities. 4. Having a plan was 100% the first thing I did before even starting college for welding. In the spring of my senior year, my high school allowed students to do a one-month internship of their own finding. Any job was allowed. I got a job at a steel company and welded with them for one month. I did so well, they hired me full-time after I graduated. I worked the day after graduation up until the day before I left for college. I loved it and worked alongside every person in the building to learn as much as I could. In that time, my biggest accomplishments were that I built railings for a shopping center and also an external metal fire escape ladder for an apartment complex. Once I went to school, I kept in touch and they let me work during all of my holiday breaks and during the summer months. I worked my first summer indoors doing welding and my second summer I worked on site - learning steel beam installation on commercial properties. I already have a full resume and I am still in school! I have become a member of the American Welding Society and the Sparkforce Metal Manufacturers. I have gone to many career fairs at my school and have already interviewed at two companies before my graduation in May, 2025. I am ready for the welding world and can't wait until I find the right fit. I just want to learn as much as I can to expand my knowledge. I am currently in my last semester of getting my associates degree in Welding and have taken all types of welding courses so I am well-rounded and ready! 5. I pride myself on being respectful and responsible. At college, I am known as "grandpop" because I am more dedicated to my craft than I am to parties or doing something stupid to jeopardize my future. I think if you ask any adults in my life, they will attest that I am very much a family man. I respect, appreciate, and love my family. I am responsible, hard-working and determined.

1. In May 2025, I will graduate with my associates degree in WELDING Technology! I love this trade from the moment I laid eyes on the small welding machine in the back of my construction technology class. I knew I wanted to go to college, but could not find a college major, a passion, or even an interest. I thought I would go to college, play Ice Hockey, and just figure it out. I quickly realized that paying $40,000 per year for four years and not having a plan was not going to benefit me. I am not the strongest student academically, but the day I welded my first piece, I was hooked! I went from welding 3 nuts together in September, to building a metal farm table by May. I wanted to be sure that this was what I loved and my school gave me the opportunity to do an internship in the last month of school. Of course, I found a steel company and was hired on the spot! I welded my last month of high school, went back to school to graduate, then worked full-time for the entire summer before I went to college. On my winter break, they took me back for a month and after finishing my first year of welding school, they hired me again the following summer to work on-site doing construction steel and welding on-site. When I am on the job, I feel a sense of pride, accomplishment and happiness. Work is actually fun! I can't wait to make this my living!! 2. Future plans after I graduate is to experiment in different areas of welding. I have the opportunity to learn pipe welding, micro welding, and animal cage welding. I was offered three different full-time jobs already and I have not quite decided where I want to start. I am interested in being a well-rounded welder and I want to learn as much as I can. I am also considering working at the Philadelpha Navy yard as a welder. Once I investigate all of the companies and opportunities, I will make a decision on my pathway. 3. Adversity is something I have dealt with academically my entire life. I have ADHD and I really struggled as a kid. My behavior was poor in school because I had so much pent up energy I didn't know what to do with it. I was a mess and I also wasn't learning. My parents tried to discipline me, tutor me, and help me in every way, but as each year passed, I got worse. I knew it and I couldn't even help myself. By the time I was in 4th grade, I was actually diagnosed, started medication, and my life started to change. I started learning, caught up on the years I was behind, and tried my best to gain ground as a "good student." By the time I got to 9th grade, I got my first honor roll certificate and my life made a turn for the BEST. From that point on, I just kept excelling and doing my best. I have completed one year of college and I am almost half-way through my last year. As a kid, I never saw this goal for myself but with my family support, great mentors/teachers, and the drive to be successful, HERE I COME WORLD! Welding College Degree - 2025!

I am not sure I would call this my favorite memory, but at age 15, I became an ice hockey referee. I remember reporting to my first game at Ice Works Ice Rink where I stepped out onto the ice for the first time in my black and white stripes to referee an 8 year-old and under game - which would turn out to be the hardest game I ever refereed. With this age bracket, kids only play at half-ice. The rules are slightly different and a penalty for the team always results in a penalty shot for the other team. I called very few penalties - I mean, these kids could barely skate at it was, but the coach on the one bench was about two minutes away from a heart attack. The opposing team had a few really good goal scorers and they were winning 10-1. The coach of the losing team starting SCEAMING at me at the top of his lungs "DO SOMETHING REFFFFF!!!!" "ARE YOU F*CKING BLIND REF!!!!!" He was yelling and berating me and I was honestly scared to death. I remember looking at one of the players faces and how scared he was hearing the coach of the other team screaming at me. I was doing nothing wrong - the other team was just winning and had much better players. Finally, after seeing that kid's scared face, I got the courage to go up to the coach. I am guessing he was about 40 years-old and I was 15. I said to him, "Sir, I am 15 years-old and I don't appreciate your language and you screaming at me. What are you teaching these kids by screaming and cursing like this?" I remained very calm and I shocked him! I then said, "One more word and I am going to give you a bench minor and throw you out of the game." I then skated away and he was quiet the rest of the game. His team lost, as they would have if anyone refereed the game. I skated off the ice feeling proud of myself for not accepting that behavior and for protecting the scared kids from his unacceptable behavior. It was very difficult to stand up to a person more than twice my age, but I knew I needed to get the game under control. This event did strengthen me not only as a referee but as a person as well. Standing up for yourself is not easy, but I learned it really fast that day! Currently, I am attending college for my associates degree in Welding Technology. My school does not have a hockey team or even a rink close by. So, I put my skates away for a few years until I graduate this May. Once I get my degree and start my welding career, I plan to re-certify for my referee certifications and will work games as a part-time job. I am excited to get back into the rink and mentor younger players and assist with advancing the great sport of ice hockey!

Picture it…Senior year of high school and a bench full of 17- and 18-year-old hockey players are in the locker room eagerly awaiting the results of a vote for Captain and Assistant Captain of the 2022-23 season. I am getting ready to play in my very last season as a Quakers Club Hockey player. My teammates are all sitting on the bench listening to the coach psych us up for a great season. He then tells the team who has been voted for by players to be Captain and Assistant Captain. After the Captain was named, shockingly, I heard my name. Coach said, “Dan Athey – your peers have voted you as Assistant Captain this year. Your teammates comments consistently echo the fact that you are a team player, you are encouraging to your peers on the ice, and you may be quiet, but you lead by your supportive nature and your actions.” Everyone clapped, except one player on the bench who threw his helmet on the floor and said, “Bullsh*t, that should have been me!” Although I was thrilled for a second, that one player’s comment overshadowed that entire moment and would be just the beginning of an awful life situation for me to face. Now let’s backtrack for a bit about how I was raised. Since I was a young child, my parents always instilled in me to be a good human being. Whenever I leave the house, even to this day, my mom says, “Make decisions that will make me proud!” I have always been a loyal friend and have tried to help as many people as I can. Now back to my last season of high school hockey. After that great day of being named Assistant Captain, things became not so great for me. That ONE kid on the bench who thought he should have been chosen, started to make my life a living nightmare. I am a bigger guy – 6 ft. 2 in. 270 lbs. and he was a smaller, thin build. Every day I entered the locker room, he would say, “Oh, here comes fat f*ck!” or “How the f*ck can you skate on blades when you are so f*cking fat?” I looked around at my teammates…and crickets – no one did ANYTHING. Right here…..my world froze. I always stuck up for everyone. Why is no one sticking up for me? I saw the faces of my teammates, pure panic – and I, for whatever reason, struggled to stand up for myself. That day, I walked out of the locker room. That night, my bully sent me a text BUT he included everyone on the team. I still have the text in my phone that read, “Dan, you should go die. Everyone on the team HATES your f*cking guts and thinks you are the worst player on the team. Just quit so we can have a good season!” I waited and not one of my teammates responded in support. That day, October 1, 2022, I called my coach and I quit my most beloved sport. I decided the best way to handle my situation was to create my own Mentoring Program through my hockey club to help younger hockey players and teach them not only about the game of hockey but also about respect each other, respect for coaches, respect for the game of hockey, and making good decisions in life. The core value themes revolved around Respect, Diligence, and Integrity. What I built not just a hockey program, but a hockey family. This is what makes me most proud.

ADHD. These four letters defined a very large part of my life. Before I even got these letters attached to my name, my family, my teachers, and I knew something was off with me. I was not hyperactive, but I was totally inattentive, although I would tell myself hundreds of times to pay attention but I just couldn’t do it. I tried so hard, but I was not learning. I was distracted. I started failing. When I finally got diagnosed with Inattentive type ADHD and I started medication, I started learning, comprehending, excelling and ultimately getting honor roll once I reached 8th grade. But it took from 1st grade on to get me to that place. One thing I never did was give up! I worked so hard to succeed, even when I was getting average or below average grades. All the hard work paid off. I excelled in high school – stopped needing help and tutors, and extra assistance and just learned how to turn my disability into an ability. I learned the art of welding in my construction class and I love it. I got an internship in my last month of school and have been welding every day since. I still love it. I worked full-time welding for the past two summers and I am currently in my second year studying for an associate degree in Welding Technology. I have made metal farm tables, industrial railings, industrial ladders, and many, many more things to be proud of. Seeing the results of my learning in metal, has been a huge accomplishment for me. That is why I decided this would be my career path. I wondered as a kid what I would be capable of, since learning took me longer than everyone else. I always felt behind. I always felt a bit excluded. I learned differently and sometimes, it took me multiple attempts to get something correct or I had to be re-taught information. Luckily with my internal drive and dedication, I was able to learn and could do whatever I wanted. I did get accepted into 9 colleges, but ultimately, I felt the trades would be the best option for me. I love being able to create and fix by welding. I love my chosen career and when I get out of school, I hope to give back to other young people like me and help them learn a trade and excel in life. Giving back, growing the trade, and contributing to the welding community are my goals in life!

As a young child diagnosed with ADHD, school always was difficult for me. I worked so hard for average grades and never was at the top of my class. I never received awards. I was just your typical average Joe. I started playing roller hockey at the age of four and then transitioned to ice hockey when I was 7. Over the years of playing this sport, I found where I felt confident. As I got older, I received many awards and really was able to maneuver the puck well and score. In my senior year of high school, I was looking into 4-year colleges with hockey but could not find a major that I felt fit me. I talked to my construction teacher who said, "Dan, with those silky hockey hands, you should try welding!" He took me to the back of the wood shop and showed me a small welding machine. My first experience was welding three small nuts together. At that time, I was hooked! I loved it. So, my teacher trained me - after school, during my study halls, etc. to weld. I went home to my parents and told them that I changed my mind about college and finally found where I fit in. WELDING! My mom and dad were thrilled beyond belief and we immediately began visiting trade schools. By the end of my senior year, I went from welding a few nuts together to building a metal farm table with a wooden top. My teacher and all the students in my woodshop class gathered around it in awe as they all admired my work. This is when I knew...I found my talent! In the last month of school, I interned at a steel company and became a welding apprentice. I loved it and they loved training a young man who was dedicated and motivated to learn the trade. They then offered me a full-time job over the summer and I continued working there until I went to college. I worked over my winter break and then worked again full-time this past summer. I learned so many welding techniques and also worked on site at large steel construction projects. My love for the trade just keeps expanding and growing. I landed at Pennsylvania College of Technology where I am learning all of the best, state-of-the-art welding techniques. When I am in the lab, it feels like minutes when there are really hours that are going by. I am learning the theory and hands-on welding and I could not have made a better choice for myself! I have already been offered 2 full-time jobs and I am still have another year left in the Welding Technology major. I realized that this career is not only something that I can do to make a living, but it is also a place where I can show my creativity and design skills. I would love to work for a big steel company when I graduate and hopefully can also do fun metal design and create unique metal projects. As a kid that always struggled in school, I am now excelling. I hope to also help other young people who struggle with learning how to learn and excel in a trade. It has been the best opportunity of a lifetime for me!

Hockey player, good student, quiet, team player, athlete, responsible driver, dedicated employee...how could someone like this experience bullying? Well...it happened to me in my senior year of high school. Of all times to experience a major life breakdown, this was it. I played both club and school ice hockey and finally, after many years of working towards a leadership position, I earned the coveted "A" for assistant captain that I proudly affixed to my uniform. Shortly after becoming one of the captains, one of my teammates that I have known since I was little, just started to berate me and say awful things to me every day at practice. He would say I was useless, the team hated me, and in a group chat with all of my team, he called me a fat pig and told me to "kys" which means "kill yourself!" I don't know why I let this destroy me, but it did. My coach intervened but I was already lost in a sea of depression. I quit the team after playing my entire life. Returning the "A" to my coach broke my heart, but my mind could not handle the pain in dealing with my bully or in how my other "brother" teammates did not defend me. So, I left and went into a deep depression. I worked my way through therapy for the rest of my senior year because I wanted to go to college and get better. One of the ways I decided to heal was to start a mentoring program at the very ice rink that I quit. I met with the director of the hockey organization and created a program for older hockey players (16-18) to mentor younger players (8-14). Despite my anger, I tried to heal by asking my previous teammates to be mentors and help other kids avoid being bullied. To my surprise, all of my team, except my bully, joined on. I created lessons with the help of my mom who is a counselor and focused on topics outside of just hockey. We worked on respect - for self, others, team, coach, family, we focused on teamwork, love for our fellow teammates, and how to be a good human. We did anti-bullying lessons and also how to reach out for help when you need it. We also taught and demonstrated hockey skills, but our biggest contribution was to focus on teaching kids to encourage one another, not break them down. Once we got up and going, every team had at least one or two mentors assigned to them. As hard as it was for me, I mentored a 10u team as well. It was so rewarding and it kind of allowed me to find forgiveness in my heart for my teammates who didn't help me in the moment that I needed them most. One of the most important lessons we taught was teaching kids not to be a bystander and to not allow bullying to occur. Reach out for help, stand up for the person being bullied, and have the strength to stop non-sportsmen-like behaviors. In our time as mentors, we taught so many kids such valuable lessons that didn't even have to do with hockey. I am so proud of the project and how it all worked out and the rink kept the mentoring program going even after I graduated. I feel like I left my mark in the hockey world by doing my part to end bullying, even if it didn't mean that it was with goals.

Disability. One word that I learned that I want to change to Of-ability. Disability implies that I am NOT able but I can assure you that I am OF ABILITY and have lots of them! I was diagnosed with severe ADHD at the age of 9. Prior to that, my educational journey was one of everyone asking the question, "What is wrong with that kid?" After Kindergarten, I couldn't read, I couldn't remember all of my sight words, and they called me a "primer" reading heading into first grade. I was tested for special education, but I didn't quite fit that perfect mold so I went on for another few years struggling. My parents helped in every way they could - worked with me at home, tried to teach me to read, had their own set of books at home to give me extra help, hired a tutor, you name it. Once I received my diagnosis, I got what they call a 504 plan for my "disability." Although I hated the word disability, my mom just explained it to me that I am ABLE to do what everyone else does, I just have to work a little harder. So, I took that information and ingrained it for life. I worked so hard through elementary and middle school school, only earning average to below average grades. One teacher believed in me and I started succeeding beyond expectation. With the support of my family, I was an honor student by the time I got to high school. I realized that my greatest ABILITY had been in front of me the entire time - my hands! I took 4 years of woodshop and built so many different, amazing things. I even shocked my teacher. I made tables, clocks, butcherblocks, a hockey table, hockey stick, you name it. My teacher said, "I think you should try welding!" From that day, I was hooked on metal. I went from welding 4 nuts together to building a metal farmhouse table by the end of my senior year. I realized at that moment, that ADHD had nothing on me and my mom was correct, I COULD do what everyone else can, I just needed to work harder. Today, I just finished my first year of college in the Associate Degree program for Welding Technology at Pennsylvania College of Technology. I also took summer classes and worked full time for a steel company. I completed a internship last year where learned all aspects of welding and welded railings, built fire escape ladders, and completed many industrial projects. I also completed an internship this summer where I worked on-site and installed large metal beams in the structure of residential builds. I found that I am OF ABILITY and my talents are endless! I plan to become a welder upon graduation in May and eventually hope to take other students with the "disability" label and take them under my wing to teach them their worth and provide them with mentorship.

I just finished my freshman year at Pennsylvania College of Technology studying to get my associate's degree in Welding Technology. My construction teacher turned me on to welding in my senior year. I started out by welding 3 nuts and bolts together. By the end of my senior year, I designed and welded a farmhouse table with a wooden top insert. When I finished the table, my classmates and teacher were shocked...my teacher went, "Dan! You need to do this for a living!" It was then that I realized all of my years of schooling and ADHD, and struggles with attention, all came to a halt when I realized that my greatest talent was right in front of me...my hands! I quickly changed course and applied and got accepted into a college for the trades. I am interested in this trade because there are so many things I can do with my degree. I could work indoors/outdoors, for a union, weld cars/bikes/etc., work at the shipyard, etc. the possibilities are just endless! I definitely like thinking out of the box. I made a bunch of friends at my school, Penn College of Technology. I was the founding member and go a bunch of guys in other programs and created a 4x4 club. We go to school in the mountains, so we drive our 4x4 vehicles on a bunch of different trails. We all have our specialties. I weld projects onto my vehicle and other friend's cars, we have an electrical student that handles wiring of light bars and headlights, we have auto student that checks everyone's oil, fluid, etc. We each use our skills and chosen trades to make the club run smoothly! This group has really helped me in many ways. Not only has it allowed me to weld vehicles - repaired car steps, welded holes in floorboards, weld roof racks, etc. it also gave me a chance to take over a leadership role. My plan after graduation is to go back to O'Rourke Steel - where I started my welding career. They taught me so much and can get me certified in large steel projects as well as welding. I found my own internship in my senior year and I worked for them from May to June 2023 as an intern, then they hired me from June until August (full-time) to teach me everything about the business. At the time, I was only 17 so I could not go out on large steel projects but now that I am of age, I will be able to do both indoor and outdoor work with them. I had such a great experience last summer working full-time, they offered me to work any time (on school breaks, over the summers, and after graduation). I will make sure I connect to people and learn as much as I can so I can choose the path that is most enjoyable and pays me so I can pay off my loans too! In high school, I created and ran a mentoring program for youth hockey players at my home rink. I have always been respectful to parents, bosses, teachers, and anyone in my life. I pride myself on being a good person. One of my biggest goals when I become an adult is to talk with other kids that were like me (kids that have some academic struggles/ADHD) and let them know that they can do anything they put their mind to! I want to operate a similar mentoring program for kids with ADHD so that they can see their potential.

As a young child diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 9, I always struggled in school academically and socially. From Kindergarten on, no one knew what was wrong with me and I always felt different but could not figure out why. Education was always difficult, my family would get impatient with me, and I could see that teachers would work really hard with me, but I just wasn't getting it. This went on for years. I was tested for a learning disability, had my hearing checked, vision checked and had tutoring and reading services. It was still happening and I was struggling to learn. Finally in 4th grade, I was diagnosed with ADHD and my life started to change for the better. I had to take medicine, which I still take, to help me focus and I learned a lot of behavioral strategies to help. Along with having ADHD for me, unfortunately, came some depression and a lot of anxiety. I still deal with these things today. In my senior year of high school, I had a meltdown after being constantly bullied by a member of my Ice Hockey team. Ice hockey was really the ONLY place I felt confident and after meetings and tried resolutions with this kid, ultimately, my mental health could not handle it and I quit my most beloved sport. I was devastated and so was my family. I had to get into therapy because I was going down a dark path. As part of my recovery, I never did go back to that hockey team, but I did go back the rink and developed and implemented a mentoring program for younger athletes. I connected with coaches, had other players join as mentors, and we focused on mental health, respect for others/coaches/families/teammates, as the main goals. I ran this program for the remainder of my senior year and the program has even continued now that I graduated. The goal is to help other young players learn how to relate to each other better and avoid bullying. I was part of several mediations where I helped kids out of a bullying situation. In terms of my career goals, I just finished my first year of college for welding. After many difficult years, I not only made friends socially, but I also became academically independent with hard work, dedication, and belief in myself. Once I graduate, I hope to take other ADHD kids like me under my wing and teach them how to weld and be productive citizens! I want to continue paying it forward and helping other people like me to realize their potential and believe that they are capable. This scholarship would mean the world to me. I also loved that "The Professor" was a teacher of blind students. I too will be getting involved with the blind youth community as my dad and I are planning to coach blind hockey in the Philadelphia, PA area. My dad is coaching this year and once I graduate from college next year, I too will become a coach to help blind children learn the sport of hockey and play in a league. It is a dream come true. This scholarship would help me tremendously to start paying my student loans. I will be $75,000 in debt once I graduate and this would really help me moving forward.

Thank you for creating a scholarship for those that give back to the community with compassion. My name is Dan Athey. I just completed my first year of college at Pennsylvania College of Technology as a welding technology major. As a young person, I was diagnosed with ADHD and I struggled my entire life both academically and socially. I have always had to work hard for my grades and struggled in social settings to make friends or take a chance at talking to new people. These traits are still with me today, however, I strive beyond my comfort zone to do better and be better. Although I had some academic and personal struggles as a child and young adult, I always found my strength in the game of ice hockey. I played from the age of 8 all the way through high school and even became a hockey referee in high school. This sport was where I felt encouraged, important, and successful. Believe it or not, in my senior year of playing club hockey, I experienced a severe bullying situation. I talked to my coaches, parents, the bully, but it was relentless. Somehow, I let it destroy my entire last year of high school. I quit hockey, became depressed, and did not know if I could ever make it to college. With encouragement, I went into counseling and tried to build myself up again. By the middle of my senior year, I decided that I was going to overcome and although I did not return to my club hockey team, I met with the owner of the club and developed my own mentoring program. I researched other athletic mentoring programs and created a curriculum for helping youth hockey players. I recruited some of my former teammates and began working with coaches, the president of the club, and other stakeholders to find out what they needed younger players to learn. The focus became on hockey rules and best play, but also on life values. I created lessons for our mentors to give to their teams from ages 8 to 14. These lessons included respect for coach, respect for peers, respect for family, how to be a teammate, how to encourage, how to lose with grace and win with pride, etc. Each of the mentors, including myself, took a team an taught the young players through lessons and most importantly, leading by example. My goal was to keep kids committed to their sport while also learning to be a good teammate so that no other player would experience the pain that I did. IT WORKED! The program was a great success and continues even though I graduated! As I head into the work world, I will continue to take younger people under my wing and encourage and help them see their potential. As a young boy, I never thought I would be where I am today, but here I am - successful in college and able to help others.

I feel I have a success story for something very difficult that I overcame. I am a student with diagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder, Inattentive Type. When I was in Kindergarten, I attended a small Catholic school. Somehow, I just was not learning. I would misbehave, get “red lights” for bad behavior and I would get notes sent home to my mom that I was not picking up on the material at school. My teachers loved me though, thankfully, because I was never mean or spiteful, I just did things that were not appreciated by my teacher and the nun, like dancing on a toilet seat and squishing my jello around on the cafeteria floor. At the end of the year, my mom was told that I had no reading ability and she should put me in a public school to get support. I then went to a public school for first grade. The teacher told my mom I was a “primer” reader which meant that I was below Kindergarten level. I need “intensive reading support.” I was sent to a special teacher and she worked with me every day. My mom would work with me every day too and we would sound out letters over and over and over. I got really upset so I tried as hard as I could, but it just was not working. My mom got frustrated but she never gave up on me. My mom got extra books to keep at home in Reading and Math and I also went to a tutor. By 4th grade, my attention got worse. I would try to listen to my teacher but I would get distracted by everything - the tapping of a pencil, the ticking of the clock, a bird flying past the window…just about everything made me lose focus. I would tell myself over and over to pay attention, but it would not work. I finally told my mom. She took me to the doctor and after a lot of time thinking about the benefits of medication, my parents both decided to put me on medication and told me I had ADHD for inattention. I started the medicine and all of a sudden, I could learn. By 5th grade, I was doing really well, except for math and by middle school, I became an honors student. I have to work REALLY hard to get good grades but one thing I did was NEVER GIVE UP. I worked with my issues and studied, did extra work, got help at home, used tutors, and did everything I needed to do to overcome my disability. I learned that with medication and effort, I could be the same as everyone else and get good grades and achieve. As I got to high school, I achieved even higher. I spent the end of my 9th grade year and all of 10th grade on virtual learning and I still worked hard, logged in every day and did great. I had honor roll every year in high school. Entering my senior year, I got into multiple colleges and trade schools and I now realize that my possibilities are endless. This has impacted me so positively because even though my grades don’t come easily, I have learned how to achieve and work hard to be successful. I just successfully finished my first year at Pennsylvania College of Technology where I am working toward earning an Associate’s Degree in Welding and Fabrication. This scholarship would greatly help me pay my student loans, which will be over $70,000 when I graduate.

ADHD. These four letters defined a very large part of my life. Before I even got these letters attached to my name, my family, my teachers, and I knew something was off with me. I was not hyperactive, but I was totally inattentive, although I would tell myself hundreds of times to pay attention but I just couldn’t do it. I tried so hard, but I was not learning. I was distracted. I started failing. I knew something was wrong, but I was a little kid - I had no idea how to fix it. I had to tell myself over and over to pay attention, but I just couldn't do it. I tried and tried but everything distracted me. As I would tell myself over and over to be good and try hard, I would never be able to achieve it. I would come home with "red lights" from school for poor behavior and I really was not being "bad." I didn't understand why I was getting punished for what I was doing. These were the most confusing years of my life and then it started impacting my learning. I got behind. I could not read like the other kids. I missed lessons, days and days of instruction and I would stare at the teacher and have no clue what he said. When I finally got diagnosed with Inattentive type ADHD and I started learning, comprehending, excelling and ultimately getting honor roll once I reached 8th grade. But it took from 1st grade on to get me to that place. One thing I never did was give up! I worked so hard to succeed, even when I was getting average or below average grades. All the hard work paid off. I excelled in high school – stopped needing help and tutors, and extra assistance and just learned how to turn my disability into an ability. I learned the art of welding in my construction class and I love it. I got an internship in my last month of school and have been welding every day. I still love it. I will now be working full-time welding this summer and then studying for an associate degree in the fall. I love my chosen career and when I get out of school, I hope to give back to other young people like me and help them learn a trade and excel in life.

BULLYING. The National Centre Against Bullying defines bullying as “an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical, and/or social behavior that intends to cause physical, social, and/or psychological harm.” I hate to say that I was a victim of this, but I was in my SENIOR year of high school. I could not believe that I made it all the way to my senior year before I experienced this treatment. I am a quiet guy. I am a hockey player. I always help others. I always help the kids being bullied or teased. I stand up for the underdog. How did this happen to me? I have always been the biggest player on my hockey team and I always stuck up for kids being teased but I never experienced it myself. Another player on my team in my club was just relentless to me. He called me fat, disgusting, and said everyone on my team hated me. He would twist my nipples in the locker room and everyone would laugh. I don’t know what happened to me. I always stuck up for kids being teased or bullied, but when it happened to me, I froze. No one on my team stepped up to help so it just continued. The worst that happened was when this bully put the entire hockey team on a group text and told me that everyone on the team hated me, I should quit, and that I should go kill myself. I was devastated. I remember calling my coach, saying I quit, and then unfriended everyone on my team, and threw my phone across the room. My mom came running up to the room. I remember the look on her face when I told her that I quit hockey and I just wanted to die. I never felt so abandoned by me teammates, my band of brothers since 4th grade, the people I loved and respected….every single one of them let me down because no on would stand up for me the way that I helped everyone else over the years. My mom said, “I think you need to go to the crisis center.” I was so terrified to go, I promised my mom that I would not hurt myself, but I did want to disappear and never be seen again. My mom, who is a school counselor, helped me contract for safety, and I agreed to go to therapy so I didn’t have to go to the crisis center. She connected me right away with a private-pay therapist so I didn’t have to go on a waiting list for months, and I started dealing with my issues, feelings, and the true pain that was inside of me. I felt so abandoned by my other teammates, more than hurt from the bully but I also hated myself for letting him get to me so badly to the point of me wanting to die. This was my senior year. I was supposed to be enjoying life, enjoying hockey, scoring goals, celebrating victories and having the time of my life. Instead, I was sitting in a therapist’s office every week for months trying to get my life together. I was getting ready to go to college and didn’t even know if I could make it there. My whole world was upside down. I never understood why people bullied. Since I was a young child, my parents always instilled in me to be a good human being. Whenever I leave the house, even to this day, my mom would say, “Make decisions that will make me proud!” I have always been a loyal friend and have tried to help as many people as I can. I volunteer a lot of hours in the sport I love – Ice Hockey. How did this happen to me? Instead of continuing in my pattern of self-hate, after therapy and help from my mom, I decided to combat the bullying I experienced and I created my own Mentoring Program through my hockey club to help younger hockey players and teach them not only about the game of hockey but also about respect for coaches and each other, respect for the game of hockey, and making good decisions in life. Even though I did not return to the team, I decided this would be my way to give back and help other kids to not have to experience what I did. As a 17-year-old high school senior, many of the young players looked up to me so I always modeled good behavior and positive interactions. I also got many other players ages 16 to 18 to be mentors as well and helped them with how to mentor the younger players. We focused on different things each week such as “Respect and kindness”, “Respect our coach”, “Following rules”, “Being on time, on task”, “Dedication”, “Honesty,” “Integrity,” etc. Now that I graduated high school, I am happy to say that the President of the hockey club wants my program to continue! Therefore, I trained one of my friends to take over the program which will continue to assist and influence the younger generation, even after I am long gone. I have grown up so much since this experience. Even though it was very painful, I was able to not only heal, but help other young hockey players and keep them from what I experienced. I am now finishing my first of trade school for Welding Technology. I plan to get my associates degree and also to continue helping others, mentoring, and taking young learners under my wing. I love working with my hands and metal – creating, exploring, and fixing. I want to continue mentoring and teach others the trades as well as there is such a need for skilled tradesman. Paying it forward, one mentoring session at a time!

My extracurriculars are Ice Hockey - both club (grades 4 to 12) and School (Elementary, Middle, High School). Having dealt with bullying, even in my senior year of high school at my club hockey team, I really suffered and ended up quitting my team. My coach and my family tried to intervene, but for my mental health, I left the team. I did not want to end my hockey career that way, so I developed and run a mentoring program for youth hockey players. I mentored 2 teams and helped them to develop not only hockey skills, but also how to be respectful of team and coach, how to be a team player, how to be a good human. My program continued even though I am now graduated and in college. I am happy to have left my mark on their program and hope that other young players will not have to endure what happened to me. In regards to Charles B. Brazelton's story, I could really relate to him. Shortly after moving into our dream home in 2014, we noticed that our neighbor, right next door, was a very angry man. I remember my mom telling me not to walk on his property and to leave him alone. After we were in our home a few months, we noticed the police would be at his house often and other neighbors had arguments with him. I remember my mom being scared and she would say, “get in the house and lock the door.” Over time, my mom started telling me that she thought our neighbor had mental illness. My parents also noticed that he would burn leaves between our property and his property at night. My parents did not engage him and they purchased child-sized spray cans for all of our rooms that were fire extinguishers. My parents taught my sister and I (ages 11 and 8) how to army crawl in the event of a fire. I remember asking my parents why we just didn’t call the police. My parents explained to me that my neighbors on the other side did call all the time, and our angry neighbor hated them. He would put nails in their driveway, rev his motorcycle all hours of the night, and he would shine the light of his motorcycle in their house. My parents said they could not take a chance of having him despise us so we were just dealing with it the best we could. One day I came home from school and he was sitting on a bench outside of his house with a gun in his hand. He was screaming that all the neighbors were against him. Again, my mom ushered my sister and I into the house and someone called the police. Still, my parents just shut the windows, locked the doors and just endured the punishment. In 2017, my family was woken up to the sound of two very loud BANGS. We went outside and could not figure out what was happening. It was 1 a.m. Finally, police arrived and there was yellow tape all around my front yard. The police told us to go inside. The next morning, we found out that that angry neighbor murdered the neighbor that lived on the other side of him and we lived on the other side! This was the neighbor that called the police on him all the time. He shot him in the head once and then stood over him for 12 seconds before shooting him a second time in the head after having a brutal argument.

I lost my grandfather to pancreatic cancer in December of 2020. Before losing my grandfather, I never experienced the death of a close family member. My family is spends Sunday dinners with both my mom’s side of the family and my dad’s side of the family. My whole life, I have had all of my grandparents share every special moment with me from birth, to my first Communion, to my Confirmation, dances, ice hockey games and everything in between. My dad’s father developed swelling in his legs during COVID. At first, we just thought it was because he had poor circulation. When my grandfather’s skin starting turning orange and he saw a cancer doctor, ultimately we found out that his bile duct was blocked by a pancreatic tumor. Doctors rushed him into surgery to stent the duct, but when they went in, there was so much fluid around the pancreas that they had to stop the procedure. The sad part about his illness is that he knew that there was nothing else that could be done. No one would take the risk of doing the stent surgery. He spent time in and out of the hospital, but his legs just filled with more and more fluid with no way for him to get rid of it. Things got so bad for him, that the fluid started coming out of his pores. I remember feeling so hopeless and so sad to watch my grandfather start dying. Since my grandfather was so sick, doctors recommended that we not visit his house for Christmas of 2020. We planned a zoom meeting at 6 p.m. on Christmas night so the whole family – my aunts, uncles, cousins and everyone could meet with my grandparents over zoom. Unfortunately, that meeting never happened. At 4:30 p.m., my grandmother called 911 because my grandfather could not breathe and his skin was bright orange. The ambulance took him to the hospital and I never saw him again. Since it was COVID, we were not permitted to go to the hospital and see him. As soon as he arrived, they put him in hospice care. I made a video with my mom and sister and sent it to the nurses and they played it for him so he could hear us but he went downhill very quickly. My grandmother called a few times and got to speak with him but he was in and out of consciousness. Two days after my grandfather was in the hospital, the staff let my grandmom, dad, and my two aunts in to say goodbye to him. The priest even did a blessing over the phone since they were not allowed in the hospital either. That night, my grandmother went home and was on the phone with the nurse who told her my grandpop was “actively dying.” My grandmother cried so hard and so did we. My grandpop, who was there for everything in my life, died…alone with only a nurse holding his hand and telling him it was okay to let go. This was the hardest thing we ever had to face. Being a close family, COVID kept me and my family from saying goodbye to my grandfather. I feel so sad and so hurt that I could not give him one last hug or high five. He died in a hospital bed with only my grandmom on the phone. I know COVID has robbed us of a lot of things in life, but having a family member die alone because we could not see him was really hurtful and painful to me.

I feel I have a success story for something very difficult that I overcame to get myself to the place where I am finishing year one of an associate’s degree program at a trade school for Welding Technology. I am a student with diagnosed Attention Deficit Disorder, Inattentive Type. When I was in Kindergarten, I attended a small Catholic school. My mom is a School Counselor so she is very aware of different issues with kids. Somehow, I just was not learning. I would misbehave, get “red lights” for bad behavior and I would get notes sent home to my mom that I was not picking up on the material at school. My teachers loved me though, thankfully, because I was never mean or spiteful. At the end of the year, my mom was told that I had no reading ability and she should put me in a public school to get support. I then went to a public school for first grade. The teacher told my mom I needed “intensive reading support.” I was sent to a special teacher and she worked with me every day. My mom would work with me every day too. I got really upset so I tried as hard as I could, but it just was not working. By 4th grade, my attention got worse. I would try to listen to my teacher but I would get distracted - the tapping of a pencil, the ticking of the clock, a bird flying past the window…everything made me lose focus. I would tell myself over and over to pay attention, but it would not work. I finally told my mom. She took me to the doctor and after a lot of time thinking about the benefits of medication, my parents both decided to put me on medication and told me I had ADHD for inattention. I started the medicine and all of a sudden, I could learn. By 5th grade, I was doing really well, except for math and by middle school, I became an honors student. I have to work REALLY hard to get good grades but one thing I did was NEVER GIVE UP. I worked with my issues and studied, did extra work, got help at home, used tutors, and did everything I needed to do to overcome my disability. I learned that with medication and effort, I could be the same as everyone else and get good grades and achieve. As I got to high school, I achieved even higher. COVID did not even get me down. I spent the end of my 9th grade year and all of 10th grade on virtual learning and I still worked hard, logged in every day and did great. I have had honor roll every year in high school. Entering my senior year, I got into multiple colleges and trade schools and I now realize that my possibilities are endless. This has impacted me so positively because even though my grades don’t come easily, I have learned how to achieve and work hard to be successful. These skills I learned that will help me as I go on to college and I cannot see what the future holds for me once I graduate in June 2023! Welding and trades are so underrepresented in our society, and I want to make sure that I make the profession proud as well as teach other students like me that they can be successful despite of a disability as a child. I want to take other kids under my wing and teach them the trade of Welding!

I lost my grandfather to pancreatic cancer in December of 2020. Before losing him, I have never experienced the death of a very close family member. My family is very close. We spend Sunday dinners with both my mom’s side of the family and my dad’s side of the family. My whole life, I have had all of my grandparents share every special moment with me from birth, to my first Communion, to my Confirmation, dances, ice hockey games and everything in between. My dad’s father developed swelling in his legs during COVID. At first, we just thought it was poor circulation, but it was not getting better. He went to many doctors and no one could figure out what was going on. When my grandfather’s skin starting turning orange and he saw a cancer doctor, ultimately we found out that his bile duct was blocked by a pancreatic tumor. Doctors rushed him into surgery to stent the duct, but when they went in, there was so much fluid around the pancreas that they had to stop the procedure. We were so hopeful that this would have been an easy procedure and would have helped, but it did not. The sad part about his illness is that he knew that there was nothing else that could be done. When they saw the report from the first surgeon, no one would take the risk of doing the stent surgery. He spent time in and out of the hospital, but his legs just filled with more and more fluid with no way for him to get rid of it. Basically, my grandfather’s body was poisoning him to death and there was nothing we could do to help. Since my grandfather was so sick and my parents were both working, doctors recommended that we not visit his house for Christmas of 2020. So, we planned a zoom meeting at 6 p.m. on Christmas night so the whole family – my aunts, uncles, cousins and everyone could meet with my grandparents over zoom. Unfortunately, that meeting never happened. At 4:30 p.m., my grandmother called 911 because my grandfather could not breathe. The ambulance took him to the hospital and I never saw him again. Since it was COVID, we were not permitted to go to the hospital and see him. As soon as he arrived, they put him in hospice care. I made a video with my mom and sister and sent it to the nurses and they played it for him so he could hear us but he went downhill very quickly. My grandmother called a few times and got to speak with him but he was in and out of consciousness. Two days after my grandfather was in the hospital, the staff let my grandmom, dad, and my two aunts in to say goodbye to him. The priest even did a blessing over the phone. That night, my grandmother went home and was on the phone with the nurse who told her my grandpop was “actively dying.” My grandfather died alone in a hospital bed. I know COVID has robbed us of a lot of things in life, but having a family member die alone because we could not see him was really hurtful and painful to me. Although I will never forget how this impacted me, I do make sure I spend all the time I can with my family and my remaining three grandparents. I am so lucky to have them close by so they can be part of my life for as long as I have them.

I am currently a freshman at Pennsylvania College of Technology studying to get my associate's degree in Welding Technology. My construction teacher turned me on to welding in my senior year. I started out by welding 3 nuts and bolts together. By the end of my senior year, I designed and welded a farmhouse table with a wooden top insert. When I finished the table, my classmates and teacher were shocked...my teacher went, "Dan! You need to do this for a living!" It was then that I realized all of my years of schooling and ADHD, and struggles with attention, all came to a halt when I realized that my greatest talent was right in front of me...my hands! I quickly changed course and applied and got accepted into a college for the trades. I am interested in this trade because there are so many things I can do with my degree. I could work indoors/outdoors, for a union, weld cars/bikes/etc., work at the shipyard, etc. the possibilities are just endless! I definitely like thinking out of the box. I made a bunch of friends at my school, Penn College of Technology. I was the founding member and go a bunch of guys in other programs and created a 4x4 club. We go to school in the mountains, so we drive our 4x4 vehicles on a bunch of different trails. We all have our specialties. I weld projects onto my vehicle and other friend's cars, we have an electrical student that handles wiring of light bars and headlights, we have auto student that checks everyone's oil, fluid, etc. We each use our skills and chosen trades to make the club run smoothly! This group has really helped me in many ways. Not only has it allowed me to weld vehicles - repaired car steps, welded holes in floorboards, weld roof racks, etc. it also gave me a chance to take over a leadership role. My plan after graduation is to go back to O'Rourke Steel - where I started my welding career. They taught me so much and can get me certified in large steel projects as well as welding. I found my own internship in my senior year and I worked for them from May to June 2023 as an intern, then they hired me from June until August (full-time) to teach me everything about the business. At the time, I was only 17 so I could not go out on large steel projects but now that I am of age, I will be able to do both indoor and outdoor work with them. I had such a great experience last summer working full-time, they offered me to work any time (on school breaks, over the summers, and after graduation). I will make sure I connect to people and learn as much as I can so I can choose the path that is most enjoyable and pays me so I can pay off my loans too! I might not have gotten the best grades in school but I always worked hard. I have to work hard for my grades, but I don't mind putting the work in. I have always been respectful to parents, bosses, teachers, and anyone in my life. I pride myself on being a good person. One of my biggest goals when I become an adult is to talk with other kids that were like me (kids that have some academic struggles/ADHD) and let them know that they can do anything they put their mind to!

My mom's name is Nicole Athey. She is one person in my life that I will always respect, admire, and be forever thankful for her. As a young child, I was "that kid." That kid in kindergarten that got "red lights" almost daily for misbehavior - climbing on toilets, not following directions and ultimately being asked to leave the private school that I was attending. They said, "He needs the support of a public school." I then started first grade and things got worse for me. I was behind in reading, could not focus, had some troubles in the lunch room, and my learning also began to fall behind. Regardless, my mom never gave up on me. She got extra sets of books to help me at home. She went to a teacher's store and set up a tutoring classroom for me where she could help me at home. She paid for tutors even when she had to work two jobs to support my needs outside of school. She made sure everything was looked at so I could be treated appropriately - she had me tested by the school psychologist, had my vision and hearing checked, met with doctors, and did not stop trying until ultimately, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. From that point on, my mom continued to support, help, and make me realize that just because I learned differently, I was still capable of success. She NEVER...and I mean NEVER gave up on me. At night, I could hear her praying for my sister and I and she would ask God to bless her with the ability to manage my care and help me to learn. I was dropping grade levels in reading and she was scared that not only would I have ADD, but that I would also develop a learning disorder from just not being able to hear the information, retain it, and remember it. I will never forget how she taught me how to read. All the other kids in my class were reading "real" books and I was still on the pre-k "Bob books." She would sound out letters with me and point to them, "mmmmm ahhhhhhh pppppp....mop," she would say. Then she would have me repeat, "mmmmm ahhhhh ppppppp.....mmm-ahhhh-paaa." My mom would say, "Daniel, listen to me say the word.....mop...." I would say....."mmm-ah-paaa." Although I know my mom would get frustrated and would sometimes take a mom break from helping me, I know she never gave up. She sounded out these words every single day until I started to learn to read. I was in 2nd grade, reading at a kindergarten level and by the end off 2nd grade, I WAS reading on grade-level. Without my mom, I could have very easily developed a learning disorder. She loved me through everything...even as I got older. My mom saw me through every step of my life. She was so helpful and how amazing was it when I got accepted into 9 colleges. I currently attend Pennsylvania College of Technology and will be earning my Associates degree in Welding Technology. I thank my mom for everything that she has done to get me this far in life and I will always be thankful. When my mom dropped me off at college, I said to her, "Mom, did you ever think mmm-ah-paaa would go to college?" She said, "I ALWAYS knew you would do great things...and I was right!"

My name is Daniel Athey. I come from a very close family where my parents are both very close with their parents, and therefore, I have spent a lot of time over the years with my grandparents. In the last year, my family has noticed a great decline in my grandmother (my mom's mother). She has really been a huge part of my life growing up. Both of my parents worked full-time throughout my life and my grandfather and grandmother were a huge help in babysitting my sister and I. They picked us up from school, watched us on holidays, helped my parents over the summer and became a second set of parents to us. Seeing my grandmother over the last year start to look sick, to have trouble walking, trouble talking, trouble remembering and trouble living a normal life has been simply devastating to my family. My grandmother has said she feels like she has Alzheimer's because her short-term memory is effected every day. She has not been diagnosed with this, but she is displaying symptoms. Additionally, she was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which has caused motor issues with her walking, talking, thinking, and relating to people. She often has gaps in her neural connections and will forget what she is saying in the middle of a sentence, will forget words and sayings, and forget what she is talking about and who she is talking to. This has simply been devastating to watch. it is also awkward on how to deal with it when it happens - ignore it? correct her? pretend like nothing is happening? Most of the time, I just sit there and she gets very frustrated trying to remember and find the right words, but I truly don't know what to do. Currently, I am away at college. When I come home, things seem to be getting worse each time I see her. My mom usually warns me of what to expect before I see her and also tells me not to get frustrated if she forgets my name or calls me by another name. She also said it is better to just not correct her and just accept what she says and leave it alone. That is what I have been doing, but it is so hard to see her in this way. My grandmother has always been a strong woman. She took care of us, fed us, cooked for us, took us places, shopped with us, babysat with us, had sleepovers with me, my sister, and all the cousins. It is just sad to see all of this slipping away. My mom told me that my grandmother calls her every day and asks how I am doing in college. She worries about me because I am the first grandchild that went away to school and I am three hours from home. She will often ask my mom to text me and tell me that she loves me. That is really heartbreaking. I feel like I am missing a huge part of her life while I am away at school and I just hope that she can try to have some meaning and normalcy to her life. I know she is aware of things and gets very frustrated when she cannot remember. It is so hard to see such a hard-working, organized woman struggle with even the most basic sentence. She also has to think about walking before she can move - that is part of her Parkinson's disease where she has trouble connecting her body movements to her brain. My grandfather is her caretaker and recently was diagnosed with cancer of the prostate. He is going through a major surgery this month and my parents are worried because my grandmother cannot take care of herself. My mom has a sister and both my aunt and mom are taking time off from work to take care of my grandmom and to be home to help my grandfather. While this will be okay for awhile, both my mom and aunt work full-time and have discussed the need to hire nurses to help if my grandfather does not heal well after his surgery. I feel really bad for my grandmother and all that she is going through. It is painful to see the frustration in her eyes and not being able to help. I will be home from college in May and offered to help them during the summer so I can not only take some burden off my parents and aunt, but to also have as much time with both of my grandparents as I can. I realize they won't be in my life forever and I want to spend as much time with them as I can.

As a young child diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 9, I always struggled in school. From Kindergarten on, no one knew what was wrong with me and I always felt different but could not figure out why. Education was always difficult, my family would get impatient with me, and I could see that teachers would work really hard with me, but I just wasn't getting it. This went on for years. I was tested for a learning disability, had my hearing checked, vision checked and had tutoring and reading services. It was still happening and I was struggling to learn. Finally in 4th grade, I was diagnosed with ADHD and my life started to change for the better. I had to take medicine, which I still take, to help me focus and I learned a lot of behavioral strategies to help. Along with having ADHD for me, unfortunately, came some depression and a lot of anxiety. I still deal with these things today. In my senior year of high school, I had a meltdown after being constantly bullied by a member of my Ice Hockey team. Ice hockey was really the ONLY place I felt confident and after meetings and tried resolutions with this kid, ultimately, my mental health could not handle it and I quit my most beloved sport. I was devastated and so was my family. I had to get into therapy because I was going down a dark path. As part of my recovery, I never did go back to that hockey team, but I did go back the rink and developed and implemented a mentoring program for younger athletes. I connected with coaches, had other players join as mentors, and we focused on mental health, respect for others/coaches/familes/teammates, as the main goals. I ran this program for the remainder of my senior year and the program has even continued now that I graduated. The goal is to help other young players learn how to relate to each other better and avoid bullying. I was part of several mediations where I helped kids out of a bullying situation. Last, I will be going to school for welding and hope to take other ADHD kids like me under my wing and teach them how to weld and be productive citizens!

As a child, school was a major challenge for me. I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I went through so much in my life, from my teachers thinking I had a learning disability to years of testing for academics, hearing, vision, you name it. No one could figure out why I wasn’t learning. All of this started in Kindergarten when my mom was told I could no longer return to the private school because they didn’t have the resources to help a “kid like Daniel.” I remember my mom crying and I was even upset about what the problem was. I tried really hard, I loved school, but apparently, I wasn’t learning. I got to first grade and could not read, struggled to write, and I realized I was different than the other kids. It wasn’t until 4th grade that they actually figured out I had ADHD. I worked extra hard at home with my mom, with tutors, and started medication. I wanted to LEARN….and learn I did! By the end of 4th grade, I was on target with all of the other kids my age, but my grades were not great. I tried really hard, but my grades were always just average. Truth is, I never gave up. Middle school came and it was more of the same. By high school, I got honor roll for the first time in 9th grade. From there on out, the world was mine! I received honor roll every year from 9th to 12th grade and took 4 years of Carpentry class. Although I did well in school, it was not my strongest place of confidence. I loved my woodshop. I built tables, games, wooden trivets, coasters, you name it! Then, my teacher turned me on to WELDING. The first spark hit and I was hooked! My teacher let me experiment with metals and I realized this was where I felt successful. From that moment on, I changed my path from visiting 4-year colleges to looking into 2 to 4 year trade colleges. I found where I belong at Pennsylvania College of Technology. I am currently almost finished my first year as a freshman in the Associate’s Welding Technology program. I am already working part-time for a steel company where I am welding indoors. I got this position in my senior year and was hired full-time over the summer months and on all of my breaks from college. I plan one interning this summer working outdoors with commercial steel building construction. I want to learn every facet of welding so I can expand my resume of knowledge. My skills with my hands has inspired and helped me in the welding field. I have built many things out of metal and wood and want to continue with welding as an artform and also in the steel industry. I hope to expand the trades and take other kids with disabilities such as ADHD and show them that in this trade, you can have ABILITY and be successful!

The two hardest things I endured in my life is learning how to live and thrive with Attention Deficit Disorder and being bullied in, believe or not, my senior year of high school. Both of these things changed my life for the worst, and the better! ADHD - I struggled educationally for many years before I was diagnosed with ADHD. I went through so much, along with my family when I was having learning difficulty. I was tested for special education, had hearing tests, vision tests, reading tests...you name it. It wasn't until everything else was ruled out that they figured out that I could not pay attention. After years of medication management, behavioral modifications, working with tutors, doing extra studying, and ultimately NEVER giving up, I got back on track. This didn't happen for me until 9th grade. I went from forever struggling to excelling and achieving honor roll all four years of high school. So what does this have to do with impacting the world? I went from a kid that could not learn to an honors student. I excelled in woodshop and my teacher then took an interest in me and taught me welding. I am now excelling in college as a Welding Technology major and one of my life goals is to go back to school and find other kids like me, with ADHD or other neurological issues, and take them under my wing and teach them a trade. There were many years where I had no self-esteem to even believe I could go to college. I don't want anyone else that suffers with a disability to not believe in themselves. So I will be a spokesperson for those people and encourage and show them that I am proof that they can learn and be successful. The second thing I endured is bullying in my senior year in high school. I played club hockey and had known this other player most of my hockey career. For some reason, he tortured me endlessly in my senior year. I was the biggest kid on the team and he consistently called me fat, a loser, and told the team I was worthless. A few times, I stuck up for myself, but eventually, I let it get the best of me. My coach noticed and tried to intervene, but it didn't stop. The hockey president even saw him torturing me and she intervened with a meeting and it still did not stop. Although hockey is where I felt the most confident, I ultimately quit the team in the first month of my last season of playing. My parents and I were devastated but with the bullying and preparing for college, the stress was so bad, my mental health needed to be addressed. So what does that have to do with impacting the world? After I got therapy and some help, I realized that I needed to take control over what happened to me and make something good out of this horrible situation. I met with the manager of the rink and the hockey president and proposed that I start a MENTORING program to help kids to get along with each other, to respect their coaches, parents, and teammates, and to not only teach hockey skills, but life skills. It got approved! Although I didn't play hockey that year, I helped every team in the league. I was able to train 5 other mentors and we each took a team in our league and worked with the kids. The most rewarding part was teaching them integrity, something that all kids need!

From the outside, I looked like I had it all. Ice hockey player (club and school mostly my entire life up until the age of 18), biggest guy on the team, good friend to all, but a quiet/shy guy on the inside. I struggled academically my entire life with ADHD (inattention). I was the kid that worked hard, but never got recognized, struggled just to get Cs and it really got me down year after year seeing people accel and I just fell further and further behind. As I got older, the combination of medication helped with my intense desire to never give up and be a "good student." Years later, I finally made honor roll and my life, academically, started getting better. In my senior year of high school, the stress of going to college, not knowing if I could be successful, and the intensive bullying I received in my last year of hockey completely changed my life around into darkness. Relationships is something that does not come easy to people with ADHD and the bullying was too intense for me. My coach noticed it, even the parents and the club. They all tried to address it with my bully and me, but I could not handle it. I quit my most beloved sport, the ONLY thing that gave me confidence and that is when I went into the darkness. I had thoughts of dying and never being able to amount to anything. My mom noticed these things in me and my downward spiral. As a counselor, she knew not even she could help me. She took me to doctors, therapists, and even had me on watch each night until I became stable. I was thankful to have my parents be so supportive of me during my saddest days. Even though they did not want me to give up hockey, they knew that my mental health was the #1 goal in improving and they supported me no matter what. After working through my treatments for a year, I began to see that I was more than a hockey player. My woodshop teacher that I had for 4 years told me I had so much talent with my hands, I should give Welding a try. I went from welding three nuts together in September to building my own metal table with a wooden top. I realized that I was worthy. My academic struggles were nothing compared to my ability to learn a trade. I started an internship at a steel company at the age of 17 and they loved me and my skill so much that they took me on full-time before I started college. I learned so much and I really built my self esteem. Additionally, I never 100% overcame the bullying so I decided that even though I wasn't playing my beloved sport in my senior year, I created a Hockey Mentoring Program so kids like me could have an older mentor to relate to, to help them in their darkest days, and to go to if they are getting bullied by other teammates. The goal was not only to teach kids the sport of hockey, but to teach them how to be honorable humans and follow the number one goals of RESPECT and INTEGRETY toward teammates, parents, coaches, and other teams. This is where I put all my hurt and pain and helped others who may have had similar situations of bullying. I helped multiple situations of bullying and it gave me PURPOSE. Also, those kids who I helped, I hope that they don't have to go down the same path as I did and were brought up and helped by having a mentor. I am now in college studying Welding Technology and will earn my associate's degree next year. I hope to get involved in Welding Engineering as well as working on site as a structural welder. I am finally out of the darkness, doing well in college and succeeding. What I learned is that no one needs to fight alone. I know that my mentoring program has lived on even though I have been gone from the rink for almost a year. It makes my happy that my work is living on and that even if one kid can be helped each year to not go down a sad/depressing path like I did, that is success. As I move on to Welding as a career, I will continue to help younger people, take them under my wing, and teach them that life is worthwhile, building your inner self is most important, and not letting anyone destroy your spirit. I found success, now I live success, and I want to share my success and help others.

My name is Daniel. I am 18 years old and live in West Chester, PA. From the outside, I looked like I had it all. Ice hockey player (club and school mostly my entire life up until the age of 18), biggest guy on the team, good friend to all, but a quiet/shy guy on the inside. I struggled academically my entire life with ADHD (inattention). I was the kid that worked hard, but never got recognized, struggled just to get Cs and it really got me down year after year seeing people accel and I just fell further and further behind. As I got older, the combination of medication helped with my intense desire to never give up and be a "good student." Years later, I finally made honor roll and my life, academically, started getting better. In my senior year of high school, the stress of going to college, not knowing if I could be successful, and the intensive bullying I received in my last year of hockey completely changed my life around into darkness. Relationships is something that does not come easy to people with ADHD and the bullying was too intense for me. My coach noticed it, even the parents and the club. They all tried to address it with my bully and me, but I could not handle it. I quit my most beloved sport, the ONLY thing that gave me confidence and that is when I went into the darkness. I had thoughts of dying and never being able to amount to anything. It was horrible. My mom noticed these things in me and my downward spiral. As a counselor, she knew not even she could help me. She took me to doctors, therapists, and even had me on watch each night until I became stable. It was so degrading to be babysat by my parents every night, but i needed it. I was thankful to have my parents be so supportive of me during my saddest days. Even though they did not want me to give up hockey, they knew that my mental health was the #1 goal in improving and they supported me no matter what. After working through my treatments for a year, I began to see that I was more than a hockey player. My woodshop teacher that I had for 4 years told me I had so much talent with my hands, I should give Welding a try. I went from welding three nuts together in September to building my own metal table with a wooden top. I realized that I was worthy. My academic struggles were nothing compared to my ability to learn a trade. I started an internship at a steel company at the age of 17 and they loved me and my skill so much that they took me on full-time before I started college. I learned so much and I really built my self esteem. Additionally, I never 100% overcame the bullying so I decided that even though I wasn't playing my beloved sport in my senior year, I created a Hockey Mentoring Program so kids like me could have an older mentor to relate to, to help them in their darkest days, and to go to if they are getting bullied by other teammates. The goal was not only to teach kids the sport of hockey, but to teach them how to be honorable humans and follow the number one goals of RESPECT and INTEGRETY toward teammates, parents, coaches, and other teams. This is where I put all my hurt and pain and helped others who may have had similar situations of bullying. I helped multiple situations of bullying and it gave me PURPOSE. Also, those kids who I helped, I hope that they don't have to go down the same path as I did and were brought up and helped by having a mentor. I am now in college studying Welding Technology and will earn my associate's degree next year. I hope to get involved in Welding Engineering as well as working on site as a structural welder. I am finally out of the darkness, doing well in college and succeeding. What I learned is that no one needs to fight alone. I know that my mentoring program has lived on even though I have been gone from the rink for almost a year now. It makes my happy that my work is living on and that even if one kid can be helped each year to not go down a sad/depressing path like I did, that is success. As I move on to Welding as a career, I will continue to help younger people, take them under my wing, and teach them that life is worthwhile, building your inner self is most important, and not letting anyone destroy your spirit. In that, I also want to teach them a trade and allow them the opportunity to see themselves as valuable humans.

I read the story about Richard and Rebecca Whiddon. My life adversity is nowhere comparable to the wonderful lives they lost, but I have had my own battle with ADHD, depression, and thoughts of suicide. I have overcome all of those things to go on and am now living a very productive college student life. Here is my story. My name is Daniel. I am 18 years old and live in West Chester, PA. From the outside, I looked like I had it all. Ice hockey player (club and school mostly my entire life up until the age of 18), biggest guy on the team, good friend to all, but a quiet/shy guy on the inside. I struggled academically my entire life with ADHD (inattention). I was the kid that worked hard, but never got recognized, struggled just to get Cs and it really got me down year after year seeing people accel and I just fell further and further behind. As I got older, the combination of medication helped with my intense desire to never give up and be a "good student." Years later, I finally made honor roll and my life, academically, started getting better. In my senior year of high school, the stress of going to college, not knowing if I could be successful, and the intensive bullying I received in my last year of hockey completely changed my life around into darkness. Relationships is something that does not come easy to people with ADHD and the bullying was too intense for me. My coach noticed it, even the parents and the club. They all tried to address it with my bully and me, but I could not handle it. I quit my most beloved sport, the ONLY thing that gave me confidence and that is when I went into the darkness. I had thoughts of dying and never being able to amount to anything. It was horrible. My mom noticed these things in me and my downward spiral. As a counselor, she knew not even she could help me. She took me to doctors, therapists, and even had me on watch each night until I became stable. It was so degrading to be babysat by my parents every night, but i needed it. After working through my treatments for a year, I began to see that I was more than a hockey player. My woodshop teacher that I had for 4 years told me I had so much talent with my hands, I should give Welding a try. I went from welding three nuts together in September to building my own metal table with a wooden top. I realized that I was worthy. My academic struggles were nothing compared to my ability to learn a trade. I started an internship at a steel company at the age of 17 and they loved me and my skill so much that they took me on full-time before I started college. I learned so much and I really built my self esteem. I am now in college studying Welding Technology and will earn my associate's degree next year. I hope to get involved in Welding Engineering as well as working on site as a structural welder. I am finally out of the darkness and doing well in college. This scholarship will greatly help pay part of my tuition which is $75,000. I currently have loans with interest that will total over $200,000 when paid over 15 years. Any bit that can help will greatly be appreciated and go right to my loan payments. Thank you!

Thank you for the opportunity to apply for the Stephan L. Wolley Scholarship and for bringing light to someone's else's life even though the family of Stephan go on without him. My name is Daniel Athey. I have been a student-athlete my entire life. Playing nerf hockey at the age of two, transitioning to online skates and roller hockey at the age of 4, and then eventually to ice hockey at the age of 8. I played my entire school career up until graduating high school in 2023. I was diagnosed with ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder when I was in 4th grade. Up until that point, I was always, "that kid"...that kid that they could not figure out what was wrong with me. I spent countless times each year being tested - was it my vision, was it my hearing, was there something wrong with my brain, was he just not well-behaved. It was painful for me and my parents. They worked so hard with me because my academics were suffering along with whatever was going on with me. My mom never gave up on me. I wasn't learning like the other kids but she sat with me EVERY night - sounding out words, teaching me to read, and teaching me math. I NEVER gave up. Learning was hard, being in school was hard, and I needed a LOT of help through the years. My life changed in 6th grade. My math teacher and homeroom teacher was handing out Honor Roll certificates. I knew I worked really hard, but never got such a thing. She went around the room and I waited to receive one. Once she handed out the last one, I knew that I wasn't worthy. My teacher saw my disappointment. She brought me out into the hall and said, "Daniel, just because you didn't get a certificate today doesn't mean anything. You are the HARDEST working student in my class. You keep striving and working hard, and eventually, those certificates will come!" From then on, I kept moving forward, one day at a time, working hard at both my sport and my academics. My math teacher, Ms. DeLeo was right! By 9th grade I received honor roll and by 12th grade, I got two awards at Graduation. It took me a long time to get there but I did it. I was dedicated to school and hockey and my sport was my lifeline. When I stepped out onto the ice, I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride that I never felt in the classroom. I worked hard for myself, my coach, and my team. I learned the importance of competition and pushing myself to my absolute max. I learned respect for my coaches and fellow teammates and we all picked each other up when we were down. My hockey team was my family and my survival throughout my toughest years of learning challenges. Today, I am a second semester Freshman at Pennsylvania College of Technology. I am successfully studying welding technology and anticipate earning my associates degree in May 2025. I am so proud of where I started and where I am now. God led me to the best place I can be and I am forever grateful for this journey. Thank you so much for considering my essay. Daniel Athey

My grandfather, Albert Evangelista served in the United States Navy during Vietnam. My grandfather made it a point for his children and all his grandchildren to understand the importance and sacrifice that servicemen and servicewomen and their families make. Every Veteran’s Day from the time I was little, my grandfather set up his vintage carousel slide projector and he would aim it up against a blank wall. We would all sit around and listen while my grandpop would click through of all of his pictures from being in the service, the different countries he visited, pictures of his job, his sleeping quarters, pictures of the naval planes, the deck of the aircraft carriers, his naval mates, and more. It is amazing how he remembered every name, every officer, every ship, and every place he visited. It was like he just came back from a trip and was telling us about it. That is how fresh in his mind all of these stories were. Each year, he would tell us a new story about his time in the service. Some stories were about the people he met in other countries, some were of different missions he was in during Vietnam. One story he told was how he knew a relative of the later known Jim Morrison of “The Doors.” He also told us of his remembering of Senator John McCain and when he became a Prisoner of War. We learned so much of not only what he endured, but of all of the heroic acts both he and all those that served performed for this country. The most memorable story my grandfather told me was that of the USS Oriskany, known as “The Mighty O.” He spent some years on this ship and had both good and bad memories. The ship was intentionally sunk on May 17, 2006 near Pensacola, Florida. I was one year old when this happened. My grandfather received a DVD of the event where the U.S. Navy and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission planned the sinking of the ship to have it serve as a natural reef for wildlife. He kept the DVD until me, my sister, and my cousins got older. About two years ago, on Veteran’s Day, we all watched it together and watched as explosives went off on each side of the ship, one by one, until it sank to the bottom of the ocean floor. My grandfather cried, out loud, even though he watched this video many times before. It was his life, his time in the service, and the ultimate end of the Oriskany's time on earth. Knowing these stories has given me such a better understanding of the lives, the sacrifice, and pride in our country. My grandfather would never change one moment of his time in the Navy, even though there are stories that he still cannot tell at the age of 76. I am nothing but appreciative to all servicemen and servicewomen from the past, present, and future.

ADHD. These four letters defined a very large part of my life. Before I even got these letters attached to my name, my family, my teachers, and I knew something was off with me. I was not hyperactive, but I was totally inattentive, although I would tell myself hundreds of times to pay attention but I just couldn’t do it. I tried so hard, but I was not learning. I was distracted. I started failing. When I finally got diagnosed with Inattentive type ADHD and I started medication, I started learning, comprehending, excelling and ultimately getting honor roll once I reached 8th grade. But it took from 1st grade on to get me to that place. One thing I never did was give up! I worked so hard to succeed, even when I was getting average or below average grades. All the hard work paid off. I excelled in high school – stopped needing help and tutors, and extra assistance and just learned how to turn my disability into an ability. I learned the art of welding in my construction class and I love it. I got an internship in my last month of school and have been welding every day since. I still love it. I worked full-time welding this past summer and I am currently in my second semester as a Freshman studying for an associate degree in Welding Technology. I have made metal farm tables, industrial railings, industrial ladders, and many, many more things to be proud of. Seeing the results of my learning in metal, has been a huge accomplishment for me. That is why I decided this would be my career path. I wondered as a kid what I would be capable of, since learning took me longer than everyone else. I always felt behind. I always felt a bit excluded. I learned differently and sometimes, it took me multiple attempts to get something correct or I had to be re-taught information. Luckily with my internal drive and dedication, I was able to learn and could do whatever I wanted. I did get accepted into 9 colleges, but ultimately, I felt the trades would be the best option for me. I love being able to create and fix by welding. I love my chosen career and when I get out of school, I hope to give back to other young people like me and help them learn a trade and excel in life. Giving back, growing the trade, and contributing to the welding community are my goals in life!

ADHD. These four letters defined a very large part of my life. Before I even got these letters attached to my name, my family, my teachers, and I knew something was off with me. I was not hyperactive, but I was totally inattentive, although I would tell myself hundreds of times to pay attention but I just couldn’t do it. I tried so hard, but I was not learning. I was distracted. I started failing. When I finally got diagnosed with Inattentive type ADHD and I started medication, I started learning, comprehending, excelling and ultimately getting honor roll once I reached 8th grade. But it took from 1st grade on to get me to that place. One thing I never did was give up! I worked so hard to succeed, even when I was getting average or below average grades. All the hard work paid off. I excelled in high school – stopped needing help and tutors, and extra assistance and just learned how to turn my disability into an ability. I learned the art of welding in my construction class and I love it. I got an internship in my last month of school and have been welding every day since. I still love it. I worked full-time welding this past summer and I am currently in my second semester as a Freshman studying for an associate degree in Welding Technology. I have made metal farm tables, industrial railings, industrial ladders, and many, many more things to be proud of. Seeing the results of my learning in metal, has been a huge accomplishment for me. That is why I decided this would be my career path. I wondered as a kid what I would be capable of, since learning took me longer than everyone else. I always felt behind. I always felt a bit excluded. I learned differently and sometimes, it took me multiple attempts to get something correct or I had to be re-taught information. Luckily with my internal drive and dedication, I was able to learn and could do whatever I wanted. I did get accepted into 9 colleges, but ultimately, I felt the trades would be the best option for me. I love being able to create and fix by welding. I love my chosen career and when I get out of school, I hope to give back to other young people like me and help them learn a trade and excel in life. Helping people and expanding the trades are my goals!

ADHD. These four letters defined a very large part of my life. Before I even got these letters attached to my name, my family, my teachers, and I knew something was off with me. I was not hyperactive, but I was totally inattentive, although I would tell myself hundreds of times to pay attention but I just couldn’t do it. I tried so hard, but I was not learning. I was distracted. I started failing. When I finally got diagnosed with Inattentive type ADHD and I started medication, I started learning, comprehending, excelling and ultimately getting honor roll once I reached 8th grade. But it took from 1st grade on to get me to that place. One thing I never did was give up! I worked so hard to succeed, even when I was getting average or below average grades. All the hard work paid off. I excelled in high school – stopped needing help and tutors, and extra assistance and just learned how to turn my disability into an ability. I learned the art of welding in my construction class and I love it. I got an internship in my last month of school and have been welding every day since. I still love it. I worked full-time welding this past summer and I am currently in my second semester as a Freshman studying for an associate degree in Welding Technology. I have made metal farm tables, industrial railings, industrial ladders, and many, many more things to be proud of. Seeing the results of my learning in metal, has been a huge accomplishment for me. That is why I decided this would be my career path. I wondered as a kid what I would be capable of, since learning took me longer than everyone else. I always felt behind. I always felt a bit excluded. I learned differently and sometimes, it took me multiple attempts to get something correct or I had to be re-taught information. Luckily with my skills of internal drive, dedication and love for the trades, I was able to learn and could do whatever I wanted. I did get accepted into 9 colleges, but ultimately, I felt the trades would be the best option for me. I love being able to create and fix by welding. I love my chosen career and when I get out of school, I hope to give back to other young people like me and help them learn a trade and excel in life.

ADHD. These four letters defined a very large part of my life. Before I even got these letters attached to my name, my family, my teachers, and I knew something was off with me. I was not hyperactive, but I was totally inattentive, although I would tell myself hundreds of times to pay attention but I just couldn’t do it. I tried so hard, but I was not learning. I was distracted. I started failing. When I finally got diagnosed with Inattentive type ADHD and I started learning, comprehending, excelling and ultimately getting honor roll once I reached 8th grade. But it took from 1st grade on to get me to that place. One thing I never did was give up! I worked so hard to succeed, even when I was getting average or below average grades. All the hard work paid off. I excelled in high school – stopped needing help and tutors, and extra assistance and just learned how to turn my disability into an ability. I learned the art of welding in my construction class and I love it. I got an internship in my last month of school and have been welding every day since. I still love it. I worked full-time welding this past summer and I am currently in my second semester as a Freshman studying for an associate degree in Welding Technology. I have made metal farm tables, industrial railings, industrial ladders, and many, many more things to be proud of. Seeing the results of my learning in metal, has been a huge accomplishment for me. That is why I decided this would be my career path. I wondered as a kid what I would be capable of, since learning took me longer than everyone else. I always felt behind. I always felt a bit excluded. I learned differently and sometimes, it took me multiple attempts to get something correct or I had to be re-taught information. Luckily with my internal drive and dedication, I was able to learn and could do whatever I wanted. I did get accepted into 9 colleges, but ultimately, I felt the trades would be the best option for me. I love being able to create and fix by welding. I love my chosen career and when I get out of school, I hope to give back to other young people like me and help them learn a trade and excel in life.

ADHD - who knew that these four little letters would take over a HUGE part of my life. Undiagnosed until 4th grade, I struggled in school. I was behind in reading. Site words were awful for me. My math skills were behind everyone else's and I was TRYING MY BEST. I was scared and thought, "Why can't I do what other kids can?" My parents worried, teachers tried to help, and I tried and tried but I could not focus. After hearing tests, eye tests, testing to see if I had a learning disability, and much tutoring and doctor visits, it was determined that I had Attention Deficit Disorder, Inattentive type. Finally after struggles from Kindergarten to 4th grade, we had a name to call it. But that was just the beginning. How do I handle it now? My parents tried, got frustrated, got doctors involved and eventually, with a heavy heart, put me on medicine. Suddenly, I was able to learn. School went on and it got a bit easier for me. I started to concentrate and then I started learning. But, I still had a lot of make-up learning to do from when I was younger. School was exhausting but my parents never gave up on me. They got me involved in hockey and it was then that my life changed for the better. I played from 4th grade up until my senior year of high school. I learned the sport, got all my energy out on the ice, learned to pay attention to rules, instructions and coaches, and eventually, I became a GREAT hockey player. I received so many awards over the years such as the Coach's Award, Most Valuable Player, Hat Trick Award, Top Scorer Award, and more. I also was a Captain one year for a club team and an Assistant Captain for the school Junior Varsity team. I was a top goal scorer and what I realized is that I had talent with my HANDS! I also took woodshop class for 4 years in high school. My shop teacher also saw my talent after seeing me create tables, shelves and more. He said, "With those silky hockey hands, you should try welding!" He brought me to the back of the room and showed me this small welding machine. He had me weld three nuts and bolts together in September and by June, I was able to build a metal farm table with a wooden table top. When I displayed it for the class, everyone stood around my work in shock! My teacher said, "Dude, this is your thing!" I realized that I didn't have to be the best in academics, but I had drive, dedication, and talent. Therefore, I decided to go to a trade college, Pennsylvania College of Technology. I want to challenge myself so I enrolled in the Associate degree program for Welding Technology. My first day of classes, I KNEW I was in the right field. I passed everything my first semester, but I will say, I have to work harder and smarter than most people. It doesn't come easy, but I am dedicated and determined so I am doing it and doing well! When I graduate, I plan to take other young people under my wing who may struggle with learning or attentional problems and teach them the trade that I was lucky enough to find. Success doesn't always have to show in how smart you are, but in your willingness to learn, dedicate yourself to a goal, and push yourself to achieve it!

The crowd cheered, “DANIEL ATHEY” (clap clap clap clap clap). I stepped out onto the ice and immediately checked an opponent off of the puck. I passed it to my teammate and SCORE! The horns blasted and the crowd went wild! I screamed and cheered in excitement and was celebrating with my team. I sat back down on the bench, got pats on the head, fist bumps, and screams of happiness as this goal put our team ahead one point as we headed into the 3rd period. We were fifteen minutes away from winning the Pennsylvania State Championship and I was on top of the world! As we headed into the last period of play, I saw the crowds going wild and yelling our team chant at the top of their lungs “E-A-S-T, East, East….AHHHHHH!” A stadium full of red and yellow hats, flags, scarves, and West Chester East Vikings signs were bouncing up and down as the crowd cheered and prayed for a win. We beat every team in the area to get to that moment and we were fighting for the title of State Champions. You could hear the clock ticking as the last minute of play was happening. One goal by the other team would have forced us into overtime. We had 60 seconds to keep them off the puck and win the title. One minute felt like an hour as every bit of effort was put out there on that ice rink. The sweat and tears of four years of ice hockey was coming to a close. The horn sounded, and the game was over. West Chester East won the State Championship for the third year in a row. It was such an amazing feeling to be on top of the world. As an ice hockey player on the Varsity Ice, it was definitely amazing watching the crowds and students cheer my name and yell my number “96…96...” when I would check a player off the puck. It was exciting and life changing for me to get that kind of attention. I am typically a shy guy and keep to myself, but every time I stepped out onto the ice, I felt a sense of pride, accomplishment, and energy like I have never felt before. I wanted this feeling to last forever and I loved being on the ice, but I knew my hockey career was not going to take me to the NHL. My love for hockey brought me to create a mentoring program to not only teach players hockey, but to encourage them to be good people. I created the program, taught other mentors, and we worked with all of the younger players throughout the year. We worked on hockey skills as well as life skills. We focused on respect, cooperation, team work, etc. This really opened my eyes to continuing to help other people. I am currently attending college for an associate degree in Welding Technology. I love to use my hands in hockey and will use them with my degree as well. I plan to bring other young students under my wing and train them in a skilled trade. I hope to give back to the next generation as I did with young hockey players. Helping others is just a part of me and I will continue that in my career. This scholarship will completely help me with my college tuition and I would be very grateful for any help to pay my loans.

Traveling to different places, within the United States and out of the country can be an excellent experience and really eye-opening to changes in living across the country and abroad. I have had the fortunate experience of traveling with my family due to my hockey team. I am from Pennsylvania and have been to Ontario Canada, Niagara Falls New York, Virginia, Washington D.C. South Carolina, Northern New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. In my travels, I have really gotten to see many different ways of life. Even within my own state, I traveled from the Philadelphia are to the Pittsburgh area and life was just so different. One of the most noticeable differences is how people speak and their accents. Even in the United States, people speak differently from state to state. There is also different slang from state to state. I noticed that I call a sandwich on a long roll a hoagie whereas in Delaware and Maryland, it is referred to as a sub. Just minor differences in speech and accent really make you feel out of place! Another difference that I noticed was the difference in pace in the eastern southern states vs. Pennsylvania. People just move at a slower pace, appear less stressed, and take their time in getting things done. Where I am from, life is fast-paced and we want everything here and now! New York is even crazier with the town loaded with people and the hustle and bustle in New York City - it is just a totally different way of living. I have also experienced differences in hockey players and their grit in different states and countries. In Canada, hockey is such a hailed sport, the parents, players and teams are just dominant over US teams. We really struggled to compete out of the country because the sport is just more valued than it is in the USA. I really loved that level of commitment, but our teams just don't have that extra push. In my personal time, my family has traveled out of the country to Jamaica and Punta Cana. These places seemed so wonderful and relaxing, however, when we found out how the workers live in poverty and have housing on the resort because the live without any nice amenities, it makes you realize that these resorts are built for luxury, but outside of the walls, there are very poor people without good jobs, no healthcare, and not great living conditions. It is actually very sad. Traveling within my country and abroad has really opened my eyes to the vast gifts I have been given in life. My family may not be the richest family in the world, but compared to some places I have visited, I am fortunate to have what I have and have had the ability to travel for vacation and with my sport. It also really allowed me to see that the pace of life is different wherever you go and sometimes, it is okay to slow down and enjoy life a little bit without always going crazy to do something and be productive. I hope one day to give my own family the opportunity to travel and see the world - the good, the bad, and the ugly so that my future children will understand just how precious their life is and grow to respect and appreciate other people in our country and other countries cultures and beliefs.

As a young child diagnosed with ADHD, school always was difficult for me. I worked so hard for average grades and never was at the top of my class. I never received awards. I was just your typical average Joe. I started playing roller hockey at the age of four and then transitioned to ice hockey when I was 7. Over the years of playing this sport, I found where I felt confident. As I got older, I received many awards and really was able to maneuver the puck well and score. In my senior year of high school, I was looking into 4-year colleges with hockey but could not find a major that I felt fit me. I talked to my construction teacher who said, "Dan, with those silky hockey hands, you should try welding!" He took me to the back of the wood shop and showed me a small welding machine. My first experience was welding three small nuts together. At that time, I was hooked! I loved it. So, my teacher trained me - after school, during my study halls, etc. to weld. I went home to my parents and told them that I changed my mind about college and finally found where I fit in. WELDING! My mom and dad were thrilled beyond belief and we immediately began visiting trade schools. By the end of my senior year, I went from welding a few nuts together to building a metal farm table with a wooden top. My teacher and all the students in my woodshop class gathered around it in awe as they all admired my work. This is when I knew...I found my talent! In the last month of school, I also interned at a steel company and became a welding apprentice. I loved it and they loved training a young man who was dedicated and motivated to learn the trade. They then offered me a full-time job over the summer and I continued working there until I went to college. I landed at Pennsylvania College of Technology where I am learning all of the best, state-of-the-art welding techniques. When I am in the lab, it feels like minutes when there are really hours that are going by. I am learning the theory and hands-on welding and I could not have made a better choice for myself! I have already been offered 2 full-time jobs and I am only in my first semester in the Welding Technology major. I realized that this career is not only something that I can do to make a living, but it is also a place where I can show my creativity and design skills. I would love to work for a big steel company when I graduate and hopefully can also do fun metal design and create unique metal projects. As a kid that always struggled in school, I am now excelling. I hope to also help other young people who struggle with learning how to learn and excel in a trade. It has been the best opportunity of a lifetime for me!

1. I am currently a freshman at Pennsylvania College of Technology studying to get my associate's degree in Welding Technology. 2. My construction teacher turned me on to welding in my senior year. I started out by welding 3 nuts and bolts together. By the end of my senior year, I designed and welded a farmhouse table with a wooden top insert. When I finished the table, my classmates and teacher were shocked...my teacher went, "HOLY SH*T Dan! You need to do this for a living!" It was then that I realized all of my years of schooling and ADHD, and struggles with attention, all came to a halt when I realized that my greatest talent was right in front of me...my hands! I quickly changed course and applied and got accepted into a college for the trades. I am interested in this trade because there are so many things I can do with my degree. I could work indoors/outdoors, for a union, weld cars/bikes/etc., work at the shipyard, etc. the possibilities are just endless! 3. I definitely like thinking out of the box. I made a bunch of friends at my school, Penn College of Technology. I was the founding member and go a bunch of guys in other programs and created a 4x4 club. We go to school in the mountains, so we drive our 4x4 vehicles on a bunch of different trails. We all have our specialties. I weld projects onto my vehicle and other friend's cars, we have an electrical student that handles wiring of light bars and headlights, we have auto student that checks everyone's oil, fluid, etc. We each use our skills and chosen trades to make the club run smoothly! This group has really helped me in many ways. Not only has it allowed me to weld vehicles - repaired car steps, welded holes in floorboards, weld roof racks, etc. it also gave me a chance to take over a leadership role. I started this group, brought in other friends from other trades, and we work together to make a group run really well. It has been going so well, my welding instructor is encouraging me to make the group official with the college and developing guidelines, rules, etc. I plan to work on that this summer and propose it to the school in the fall 2024 so it will be official. Then I will have really made my mark! 4. My plan after graduation is to go back to O'Rourke Steel - where I started my welding career. They taught me so much and can get me certified in large steel projects as well as welding. I found my own internship in my senior year and I worked for them from May to June 2023 as an intern, then they hired me from June until August (full-time) to teach me everything about the business. At the time, I was only 17 so I could not go out on large steel projects but now that I am of age, I will be able to do both indoor and outdoor work with them. I had such a great experience this summer working full-time, they offered me to work any time (on school breaks, over the summers, and after graduation). This is my initial plan. I want to work in a few different areas and explore welding - some might be hobbies, some career but I will make sure I connect to people and learn as much as I can so I can choose the path that is most enjoyable and pays me so I can pay off my loans too! 5. If you were to call any adult that was in my life, you would hear that I am a hard worker, a good, respectful man, and a rule follower. I might not have gotten the best grades in school but I always worked hard. Even in college, while others are doing fun things, I do stay back and get my work done. I am dedicated and do what I need to to get the job done. I have to work hard for my grades, but I don't mind putting the work in. I have always been respectful to parents, bosses, teachers, and anyone in my life. I pride myself on being a good person. When the welding company contacted my boss and welding teacher and heard about my work ethic and personality, I got hired on the spot and now have a chance to spend my adult life working there, if I choose. One of my biggest goals when I become an adult is to talk with other kids that were like me (kids that have some academic struggles/ADHD) and let them know that they can do anything they put their mind to!

I could hear the clicking of Ms. DeLeo’s shoes as she slowly walked up and down the aisles of our 6th grade homeroom with a bunch of honors certificates. I thought, “Would I get one?” My heart pounded as she went through the classroom and handed out honor roll certificates to students one by one. As she came close to my desk, I felt myself start to reach for a certificate until I noticed that she was not looking at me. My heart sank to my feet. Nevertheless, I did not give up hope as there were a bunch more in her hand. When she was nearing the bottom of the pile, my hopes quickly turned to disappointment. Moments later, Ms. DeLeo approached my desk and said, “Daniel, can you please step into the hallway?” Mouth dry, lips parched, and hands sweaty, I got up from my seat. I looked at Ms. DeLeo’s face and she appeared concerned. Now, I was terrified. Like a pirate walking the plank, I slowly headed to the door. My knees were shaking; I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears. As I hesitantly stepped outside of the room, Ms. DeLeo shut the door and looked down at me with a stern face. I shuttered in fear as she said, “Daniel, just because you didn’t get a certificate today doesn’t mean anything. You are the hardest worker in my class. You keep giving your best effort and those certificates will come. I have ADHD but I never let these four letters define me. My devotion to my education started blooming. Ms. DeLeo was exactly right! Eventually, the honor roll certificates did come. With each passing year, I have developed myself into a mature, responsible young man. I took honors courses, played A division Ice Hockey, created a mentoring program for young hockey players, held a part-time job, and I became an Ice Hockey Referee. I got myself a welding internship and was hired full-time as a welding apprentice until college. I turned my disability into an ABILITY and overcame many obstacles. I would be so appreciative of this scholarship because I am a hard worker, a dedicated student, and try my best to be a good person. To continue to help the community, I previously developed a mentoring program to support youth hockey players with positive interactions after experiencing bullying myself at my hockey club. The program, luckily, is continuing even though I graduated and am going to college. Having extra funds would allow me to assist in continuing to financially support my mentoring program and purchase supplies for the club as well as hosting mentoring/mentee gatherings/pizza parties. I was interested in this scholarship also because it discusses Philately. I am from a long lineage of United States Postal Service workers. My grandfather was a carrier and supervisor. My dad was a clerk, carrier, supervisor and now a Postmaster. My two aunts are both clerks. We have always been fascinated by different stamps from around the world and the costs from over the years to send mail anywhere in the world for a very reasonable price. My grandfather used to joke, “Where else can you send something across the country for less than one dollar?” My grandfather also taught us how mail was delivered in the old days vs. how postal stamps have evolved over the years. We don’t have a very large collection, but it is good to impress history about our country to everyone. I know my grandfather did this for me, and I will do the same for my children.

“Make decisions that will make me proud!” “All I ask is that you are a good person.” These are two quotes that have been instilled in me by my parents since I was a child. Making good choices and being a good person are both values that I take very seriously. Community means to me a group of people who come together with common goals and interests and assist one another with achieving success. I think this definition has definitely changed since COVID. Many community project and activities have been cancelled and even though we are through the worst of COVID, it has taken a long time to get back to normalcy in every way. I was determined to get back to my community service projects and activities. As a 17-year-old high school senior who grew up with ADHD and who was bullied, I wanted to help other kids that may have experienced the difficulties that I experienced growing up. I am an Ice Hockey player as well and I turned my pain into service to others. Although, I have always been a shy person, I created my own Mentoring Program through my hockey club. I developed this program, not only to teach young players the sport of hockey, but also to model and teach respect, dedication, diligence, and integrity. I was able to get ten players, ages 16 to 18 to mentor all of our teams from ages 8 to 14. I met with all of the coaches and asked what they would like to see in a mentoring program, then I created weekly goals for the mentors to focus on such as “Respect our Coach Week”, “Respect our teammates Week”, “Following Rules Week,” “Being Respectful, Responsible, and Kind Week,” etc. Each week, I would give the mentors a bulleted list of focus items depending on the goal for the week. The program became a huge success! Younger players started attending and cheering on their mentors at their games and we created not just a hockey program, but a hockey family. Our coaches started communicating with their mentors who were players on other teams and it just created an entire connection within our hockey community. Thankfully, the program will also continue in my absence once I go to college and my legacy will carry on. I hope to continue this role in my life as well. I am going to school to become a welder and I plan to mentor young people who may be interested in becoming a skilled tradesperson. I hope to go back to my high school woodshop class and meet with students who were I my same place of uncertainty and confusion and talk to them about the value of the trades. It is also my hope that I can take people who may be struggling with ADHD or anyone who may need assistance and take them under my wing and teach them the trade. I am so thankful for all the people in my life who helped me and I am grateful to have the ability to help others. Paying it forward, one mentoring session at a time!

BULLYING. The National Centre Against Bullying defines bullying as “an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical, and/or social behavior that intends to cause physical, social, and/or psychological harm.” I hate to say that I was a victim of this, but I was in my SENIOR year of high school. I could not believe that I made it all the way to my senior year before I experienced this treatment. I am a quiet guy. I am a hockey player. I always help others. I always help the kids being bullied or teased. I stand up for the underdog. How did this happen to me? I have always been the biggest player on my hockey team and I always stuck up for kids being teased but I never experienced it myself. Another player on my team in my club was just relentless to me. He called me fat, disgusting, and said everyone on my team hated me. He would twist my nipples in the locker room and everyone would laugh. I don’t know what happened to me. I always stuck up for kids being teased or bullied, but when it happened to me, I froze. No one on my team stepped up to help so it just continued. I never understood why people bullied. Since I was a young child, my parents always instilled in me to be a good human being. Whenever I leave the house, even to this day, my mom would say, “Make decisions that will make me proud!” I have always been a loyal friend and have tried to help as many people as I can. I volunteer a lot of hours in the sport I love – Ice Hockey and to combat the bullying I experienced, I created my own Mentoring Program through my hockey club to help younger hockey players and teach them not only about the game of hockey but also about respect for coaches and each other, respect for the game of hockey, and making good decisions in life. As a 17-year-old high school senior, many of the young players looked up to me so I always modeled good behavior and positive interactions. I also got many other players ages 16 to 18 to be mentors as well and helped them with how to mentor the younger players. We focused on different things each week such as “Respect and kindness”, “Respect our coach”, “Following rules”, “Being on time, on task”, “Dedication”, “Honesty,” “Integrity,” etc. Now that I graduated high school, I am happy to say that the President of the hockey club wants my program to continue! Therefore, I trained one of my friends to take over the program which will continue to assist and influence the younger generation, even after I am long gone. I am now moving on to start trade school for Welding Technology. I plan to get my associate's degree and also to continue helping others, mentoring, and taking young learners under my wing, much like Mr. David Hindsale. I love working with my hands and metal – creating, exploring, and fixing. I started welding in the beginning of my senior year. My first project was welding three nuts together and I expanded to building a farm table with a wooden top by the end of the year! I want to continue mentoring and teaching others the trades as there is such a need for skilled tradesman. Paying it forward, one mentoring session at a time!

Integrity. Diligence. Excellence. Service. Legacy, to me, is the core values that I have adhered to my entire life with the help of my mom. These values are what I would like to leave behind for my family and others that I impact in my life. My educational journey, however, has not been the smoothest, but I always did my best and it was dedication that got me to succeed. I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, Inattentive type in 4th grade and school has always been a struggle, but once I reached high school, I really gained control over my life, my attention, and my desire for an excellent, successful future. I always put my best effort forward and really overcame many obstacles. I started discovering myself and realized that I was so much more than those four little letters….ADHD. I realized I had talent and skills with my hands. I had been playing ice hockey since 3rd grade and was always told I had “silky hands.” Once I reached high school, I took four years of Woodshop and a year of CAD. I built so many things in those years with my hands – end tables, clocks, table hockey, shelves, and more! It was in my senior year that my teacher turned me on to welding! I was immediately hooked and went from welding three nuts together in September to welding a farm table with a wooden top by June. Again, striving for opportunity and success, I was able to secure my own internship at a steel company and have been learning welding hands-on for about 3 months. I will be going to college in August at Pennsylvania College of Technology to earn my Welding Technology Associate’s degree. I am currently banking all of the money I am making as well as looking for part-time employment welding around my college so I can afford to continue on with school and get my bachelor's degree in Welding Engineering. That will provide me the opportunity to weld as well as inspect and handle non-destructive testing. Throughout my life, I have tried to help and be a good person. I have always been the person to help others, to step in when others need help, and be a good role model. In an effort to combat other kids experiencing bullying, I created and implemented a mentoring program at the hockey rink where I played for many years. I got players ages 16 to 18 to volunteer to mentor the young players and teach them not only hockey skills but real-life positive behaviors such as respect for self, for team, for parents, for coach, responsibility to teammates, and overall kindness and integrity. I am happy to report that my program WILL continue to thrive even once I go to college. I trained another teammate to take over the program so mentoring will continue for years and years to come. If selected to win this scholarship, I will continue to live on as Dr. Samuel Attoh did and give back. I have already vowed to take other kids like me who might have a disability and help them to realize their ABILITIES! I plan to take other young learners under my wing and teach them and mentor them in my trade. I will continue paying it forward and being a successful contributor to my community. My hope is that those that I mentor will go on and do the same in their lives, following my legacy! I thank you for honoring your father with a scholarship to help kids like me!

What excites me most about college is being independent, being in an environment where I am surrounded by like-minded learners, and having the ability to learn my trade of Welding. I took woodshop for four years and was turned onto welding in my senior year by my woodshop teacher. I knew the minute I saw that arc that this was the career for me. I went from welding 3 nuts together to building a metal farm table with a wooden top by the end of my senior year in high school. I also obtained a full-time job as a welding apprentice this summer and am getting as much experience as I can before going off to college. Welding for me is a place where I can work, create, and develop. It provides me with peace of mind and creativity. To maintain a healthy mind, body, and soul, I have learned how to use mindfulness techniques to assist me with my mind. I have ADHD, inattentive type, but have worked many, many years to get it under control and to manage my symptoms. I use mindfulness to breathe, stay present, and to calm myself when I am feeling anxious or unfocused. In terms of my body, I have always been an athlete and played ice hockey in both club and school. My college does not offer hockey, so I am looking into other activities to keep active such as intramural sports and baha racing. My school offers a program where the welders, auto techs, engineers and more develop and build baha race cars and then race them at the end of the semester. This will not only be fun, but will give me great experience. I also chose a roommate that is like me and enjoys the gym and daily workouts. We already planned our workout schedule around our class schedules. Lastly, my school offers free nutritional counseling which I will take part in when I arrive so I eat a balanced meal plan once starting college. In terms of my soul, I pray, sit in silence at times, and just rely on the support of my family and friends. I make sure I use time to myself to pray and meditate and I also go to family for support. I also realize that if needed, there are counseling supports for me on campus. Overall, going to college is going to be a learning experience for my mind and hands, but also a growing experience for my heart and soul. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

As a hockey player with ADHD, I have always been mindful of my health. Since 4th grade, I have been on Concerta for inattention and I have always monitored my food and not experimenting with drugs or alcohol. Partying has never been part of my repertoire and I even chose a college roommate with the same values that I have. I never wanted to put my mind or body at risk and this same concern applies as I head to college. I always make sure I am paying attention even to the amount of sugar I put in my body as too much sugar interferes with my attentional issues. Getting my inattention under control has taken me many years to master and I am not about to mess that up as I go to college to study welding technology. In my athletic life, I have played sports for as long as I remember. Eating well and exercise have been crucial to my success in turning my DISABILITY with ADD into an ABILITY! When I am eating right and exercising, playing hockey or just being active, I feel so much better. I have energy, stamina, and mentally, I feel much better. There was a time in my high school life where my mental health was a concern, but I fought through that by being active, eating properly, and practicing good sleep habits. Now that I have graduated from high school and heading to college where there is NO hockey team, I have to find other ways to get exercise and incorporate movement into my life. I have researched everything I want to do such as intramural sports and joining the baha team. The baha team builds and races baha vehicles. Additionally, I found a hockey rink close by where I can join a men's league or work with younger players as a mentor. In terms of healthy eating, I have visited most of the eating facilities on campus. I also found that there is a nutritionist on campus that will meet with me and help me plan out good eating habits while I am away on my own. My roommate also shares the same enthusiasm for healthy habits and eating and we plan to go to the gym on a daily basis as well both on and off campus. My first goal is to make sure that I am eating well, getting exercise, and sleeping well so that I can be ready for my college experience and give it my best effort!

As a hockey player with ADHD, I have always been mindful of my health. Since 4th grade, I have been on Concerta for my inattention and my parents have always instilled in me eating healthy, and never taking any drugs. I can honestly say that I have not done drugs, vaped, or ever got drunk. Partying has never been in my repertoire, as a matter of fact, when I applied to college, I chose a roommate that shares the same values as I do. It may be hard to believe, but it is true. I have never wanted to put my mind or body at any risk as a teenager and my concerns continue as I head to college. I also make sure I am aware of the foods I put into my body as foods high in sugar do not mix well with my inattention. I have always made sure that I eat snacks with less than 5 grams of sugar, but I will admit that from time to time, I do have a sweet tooth and love to enjoy cake and cookies in moderation. In my athletic life, I have played sports for as long as I can remember. I played t-ball, then found hockey when I was two years old. I was playing nerf hockey and absolutely loved it. My mom signed me up for roller hockey at the age of 4 and I played until I was seven. I then discovered ice hockey and was hooked from third grade through my senior year of high school. I played both school hockey and travel club hockey for 9 years. This has been my life and I have always taken care of my body as an athlete. I worked out three days per week with my teams and also went to the gym with my own workouts. Now that I graduated from school and my hockey career has ended, I am now heading to college where there is NO hockey! I have already found activities to get involved in such as intramural sports and also want to join a baha team where I will help to build baha vehicles for racing. I also found out that there is a rink about 45 minutes from my campus. My plan is to continue skating and either play on a men's league or try to work at the rink with younger hockey players either by coaching or mentoring. Being a 17-year-old young man who has never done drugs and have always respected my body, I would love to share this with other young players and be a good role model for other youth hockey players.

I lost my grandfather to pancreatic cancer in December of 2020. Before losing my grandfather, I have never experienced the death of a very close family member. My family is very close. We spend Sunday dinners with both my mom’s side of the family and my dad’s side of the family. My whole life, I have had all of my grandparents share every special moment with me from birth, to my first Communion, to my Confirmation, dances, ice hockey games and everything in between. My dad’s father developed swelling in his legs during COVID and no doctors could figure out what was going on. When my grandfather’s skin starting turning orange and he saw a cancer doctor, ultimately we found out that his bile duct was blocked by a pancreatic tumor. Doctors rushed him into surgery to stent the duct, but when they went in, there was so much fluid around the pancreas that they had to stop the procedure. The sad part about his illness is that he knew that there was nothing else that could be done. He spent time in and out of the hospital, but his legs just filled with more and more fluid with no way for him to get rid of it. Things got so bad that the fluid started coming out of his pores. My grandfather’s body was poisoning him to death and all we could do was watch. I remember feeling hopeless. Since my grandfather was so sick and my parents were both working, doctors recommended that we not visit his house for Christmas of 2020. So, we planned a zoom meeting at 6 p.m. on Christmas night so the whole family – my aunts, uncles, cousins and everyone could meet with my grandparents over zoom. Unfortunately, that meeting never happened. At 4:30 p.m., my grandmother called 911 because my grandfather could not breathe and his skin was bright orange. The ambulance took him to the hospital and I never saw him again. Since it was COVID, we were not permitted to go to the hospital and see him and he was put in hospice care. I made a video with my mom and sister and sent it to the nurses and said goodbye. The priest even did a blessing over the phone since they were not allowed in the hospital either. That night, my grandmother went home and was on the phone with the nurse who told her my grandpop was “actively dying.” I will never forget that moment in my life. My grandmother cried so hard and so did we. My grandpop, who was there for everything in my life, died…alone with only a nurse holding his hand and telling him it was okay to let go. This was the hardest thing we ever had to face. Being a close family, COVID kept me and my family from saying goodbye to my grandfather. I feel so sad and so hurt that I could not give him one last hug or high five. He died in a hospital bed with only my grandmom on the phone. I know COVID has robbed us of a lot of things in life, but having a family member die alone because we could not see him was really hurtful and painful to me. Although I will never forget how this impacted me, I do make sure I spend all the time I can with my family and my remaining three grandparents. I am so lucky to have them close by so they can be part of my life for as long as I have them.

ADHD. These four letters defined a very large part of my life. Before I even got these letters attached to my name, my family, my teachers, and I knew something was off with me. I was not hyperactive, but I was totally inattentive, although I would tell myself hundreds of times to pay attention but I just couldn’t do it. I tried so hard, but I was not learning. I was distracted. I started failing. When I finally got diagnosed with Inattentive type ADHD and I started learning, comprehending, excelling and ultimately getting honor roll once I reached 8th grade. But it took from 1st grade on to get me to that place. One thing I never did was give up! I worked so hard to succeed, even when I was getting average or below-average grades. This is something I want people to know. You don't have to be the smartest or the best - but if you are doing your best, the rewards WILL come to you. You have to be patient, work hard, and never, ever, give up on yourself! All the hard work paid off for me. I excelled in high school – stopped needing extra help and tutors, and extra assistance and just learned how to turn my disability into an ability. I realized that through my years of playing hockey, I had really good hands and I started to use them to my advantage. I learned the art of welding in my construction class and I love it. I got an internship in my last month of school and have been welding every day. I still love it. I will now be working full-time welding this summer and then studying for an associate degree in the fall. I love my chosen career and when I get out of school, I hope to give back to other young people like me and help them learn a trade and excel in life. I believe it is important for kids like me to realize that they can turn that "dis" into an ABILITY! Having ADHD or a learning disability is not the end of the road. WE CAN SUCCEED. WE CAN BE PRODUCTIVE MEMBERS OF SOCIETY and I will set myself as an example of this and take other students with disabilities and take them under my wing so they can "diss" the disability and embrace their ABILITIES!

I will be pursuing the trade of welding. It took me a long time to find my niche. As an avid ice hockey player from grade 4 through 12, I always imagined myself going to college and playing hockey for the crowds of fans. In my senior year, I made a big hit on the ice and I could hear the crowd roar, "DANIEL ATHEY!!!!" (clap clap clap clap clap). It really pumped me up. While looking at colleges though in my junior year, I felt like I was looking at schools for their hockey programs more so than their academics. I would look at the list of majors and nothing really spoke to me other than hockey. My parents talked to me about going to school to study something, not just going for hockey. It was then that I realized that I really had no interest in the majors offered to me, but I really loved the college opportunity. Regardless, I applied to a bunch of colleges, hoping to figure it out. I was accepted to all 9 schools that I applied to! But again, something did not feel right. I went and talked to my wood shop teacher and told him that I like working with my hands, but I don't know what I can do with my future. My teacher said, "With those hockey hands, you should be a WELDER!" He turned me onto to a small welding machine in the back of the shop and from that day on, I was HOOKED. I started by welding 3 nuts together and by the end of the year, I welded a full table out of metal and put a wood top on it. I knew this was the field for me! I went home and nervously told my mom that I wanted to switch directions and go to trade school. To my surprise, she was THRILLED and said she had been waiting for me to "see the light!" We looked into three more schools for trades and I decided on Pennsylvania College of Technology due to their state of the art facility and amazing opportunities. In the last month of school, I did an internship at O'Rourke Steel. They had me welding on day one! After I graduated, they offered me a full-time job for the summer and to come back at any time during my college breaks. Thankfully, I made a good impression on them with my work ethic and desire to learn. After I get my welding degree, I hope to go back to O'Rourke and work for them full time. I want to learn the outdoor steel construction as well as continue welding in the shop. Eventually, I would love to become a welding inspector when I get older and continue my studies in the profession for years to come. In my educational journey, I have overcome adversity with my diagnosis of ADD, inattention. I struggled academically my entire life and went through so much as a kid because they could not figure out what was "wrong" with me. I wasn't learning, I could not focus, and I went through all kinds of "testing" to figure out what my problem was. I can remember my mom crying because she would get so frustrated when I could not learn to read. Thankfully, I was a kid that was determined to learn. I worked hard, got help, asked for help and overcame this disability. With the help of medication and very intense desire to succeed, I have overcome this disability and made it one of my ABILITIES!

A time when a coach helped me overcome a challenge was when I had another player on my hockey team who constantly humiliated me in the locker room. I struggled so much because I did not want to start trouble and I was the one in the locker room who always helped everyone else. I stuck up for my teammates. I was always positive on the bench. I kept things upbeat even when we were losing horribly. I was a good leader and role model but never experienced being made fun of and humiliated. I tried talking to the teammate, but it did not help. Eventually, I went to my coach. He helped me get through it, gave me the courage to stand up to the bully in the locker room and encouraged me to havea sit-down conversation with the teammate that was teasing me. I did confront my bully and after we talked it out, the teasing stopped. After this occurred, I decided that I needed to help other kids who were getting teased. I went to the president of my hockey club and asked to start a mentoring program for younger players. I developed rules and a program and got everything approved. I contacted all of the players and got about 10 volunteers for mentors hockey players ages 8 to 14. I assigned all of the mentors to teams in our club and connected them with coaches. I ran the program and was also a mentor. Each week, we focused on personal themes - respect for teammates, respect for coach, family rules in the locker room, in addition to skills in teaching the game of hockey. I just realized that hockey is more than a game. It is a team, a family, a cohesive group. If any of the members are not being respected or are being disrespectful, it impacts the entire team in a negative way. The program went very well and now that I have graduated, I passed down the mentoring program to another one of my teammates who will continue this program for many years to come! I am definitely not a person with a booming voice, but I used my voice to help others to handle positive interactions among players. I do have a big heart - I am never the one to hurt people and really struggled when I was the one being hurt. I knew how awful this felt and I wanted to make a difference in others and make sure that respect is the number one focus before even stepping foot on the ice.