When I was sixteen, I volunteered to help a family recover after a devastating tornado. They narrowly escaped with their lives and lost nearly everything they owned. The team I was assigned to spent several days helping sift through the unbelievable wreckage of what was once a trailer. By the time we left, we had splintered wooden beams in one pile and fiberglass in another. We found the bathtub over a hundred yards away. I was honored to find the photo album that the homeowner so desperately sought and to offer her a hug when I gave it to her. I so desperately wished I could have done more for this family. I’ll never forget the horrible nightmare this family was going through, and perhaps that is why I began to look towards meteorology as a possible career field. That experience left me asking important questions: What causes weather to become so destructive? How can communities be better protected? Can stronger buildings, better forecasting, or improved warning systems save lives? How can we better support communities affected by severe weather? A year later, I experienced two separate tornado near-misses. Those events further strengthened my desire to understand severe weather and contribute to solutions that make communities safer. I found my future career path in meteorology. This is interesting, since nobody in my family has pursued a STEM career. It’s also fascinating because my health prevented me from attending high school. I built the math and science parts of my brain while taking classes at community college during what should have been my junior and senior years of high school. While I've been attending community college full-time and have been accepted into the meteorology program at the University of Oklahoma, I am also living with complex chronic health conditions that make living life very challenging and expensive. My accrued medical debt is astronomical due to hospitalizations, ambulance rides, doctors’ appointments, prescriptions, supplements, physical therapies, and surgeries. It’s so bad that my mom was denied the Parent Plus loan since my medical debt is dragging down her credit score. My dad is not in the picture at all. I don’t want my sickness to define or limit me. I know I have to work harder, rest more, eat better, and see more doctors, but that is all worthwhile if I can still pursue my passion for making the world a better place through meteorology. Better prediction tools, community communication techniques, urban planning, and emergency management are all areas I am considering as I begin my studies at the University of Oklahoma in August. I can't wait to see what the future of meteorology holds and to find my place in those technological advances. Thank you for considering me as a possible recipient for this scholarship. I am grateful for your consideration.

Born with complex and chronic health conditions, sometimes I have good days, and often, I don’t. On the good days, I live life fully. On sick days, I push myself to do simple things like taking a shower and showing up to class. At one point, I was hospitalized twelve times in two years. That was followed by two years in bed recovering from PANS & PANDAS, a rare pediatric form of encephalitis. I became a full-time homeschool student because I was too sick to attend school. While bedridden, I challenged myself by learning to code and edit videos, which I enjoyed. When I was well enough to resume my education part-time, I started at community college. I grew up attending Immune Deficiency Foundation events, where I learned to embrace my primary immunodeficiency and share my story with others. I signed up to be an IDF Plasma Ambassador and visited plasma donation centers in several nearby towns to greet employees and thank them for their work. I also thank the donors for giving plasma and answer any questions they have about the lives they are saving. One day, I came across an older man in the corner. I told him about my health story and how immunoglobulin had saved my life. The man had a tear in his eye as he said, “I’ve been giving blood since I was a young man. No one has ever come to thank me before.” At sixteen, I volunteered with Eight Days of Home and helped a family recover after a devastating tornado. They narrowly escaped with their lives and lost nearly everything they owned. My team spent several days helping sift through the unbelievable wreckage of what was once a trailer. By the time we left, we had splintered wooden beams in one pile and fiberglass in another. We found the bathtub over a hundred yards away. I was honored to find the photo album that the homeowner so desperately sought and to offer her a hug when I gave it to her. I’ll never forget the horrible nightmare this family was going through. A year later, I experienced two separate tornado near-misses. Those events further strengthened my desire to understand severe weather and contribute to solutions that make communities safer. By combining my interests in coding, technology, and science, I found my future career path in meteorology. I want to build a life of continuous giving back to communities, which is why I’m heading to the University of Oklahoma to earn a degree in meteorology. Life has taken me by storm, but now I'm ready to give back to others. Two weeks ago, I had the privilege to serve with my church in Jamaica to rebuild a school for deaf orphans. I’ve also helped do research for a biography that is being written for the last survivor from the Warsaw Ghetto. I guess you could say I am an opportunist when it comes to community service. If I’m in a relatively stable period of health, I look for opportunities to serve wherever they may appear. I’m also looking forward to a career in meteorology, where my job will be to serve communities before, during, and after severe weather events. I’m eager to help make the world a safer place. My desire to be self-sufficient and to serve the world around me is greater than my sickness. Thank you for considering me as a possible recipient for this scholarship. Hopefully, together, we can make the world a better place!

Born with profound health issues, but I grew up alternating between bouts of sickness and competing in track and cross-country. I started competing young, winning medals at state and traveling for national competitions. In sixth grade, my health completely failed, and I bounced between home and twelve hospitals for two years. This tough time was filled with pain, misery, and deep depression. As my mother worked with many doctors to find solutions for my wide array of health issues, I realized there was no simple cure or easy way to get back into the life I wanted to live. I had to do it myself. Slowly, the doctor’s treatments brought me back from the brink of death. I fought to get through each day, spending two years mostly in bed recovering from the apex of my illness. Still too sick to attend school full-time, I studied coding and technology and then began attending classes at the community college. I learned to push through and attend classes even when I felt like throwing up, and to study, even with migraines and body pains. I’ve undergone multiple surgeries in recent years, but I ride these waves knowing they’re helping me move forward in life. At sixteen, my mother and I helped a family recover after a devastating tornado. They narrowly escaped with their lives and lost nearly everything they owned. That experience left me asking important questions: What causes weather to become so destructive? How can communities be better protected? Can stronger buildings, better forecasting, or improved warning systems save lives? How can we better support communities affected by severe weather? A year later, I experienced two separate tornado near-misses. Those events further strengthened my desire to understand severe weather and contribute to solutions that make communities safer. By combining my interests in coding, technology, and science, I found my future career path in meteorology. I’ll always face chronic, complicated, and costly health challenges, but I choose to apply the same passion in pursuit of a career in meteorology that I once applied to my running. I recognize that my path may be different from others', but that there is still a path for me. This means carefully guarding my sleep, monitoring my diet, doing physical therapy, taking my supplements and medications (which are many multiple times a day), seeing doctors frequently (often multiple times a week), and occasionally having surgeries to maintain the capabilities I have. I recognize that I have to live within my limits, but the past few years at community college have shown me that higher education is within my reach. I’m seeking scholarship assistance because my family has faced significant financial challenges. In addition to my own extensive medical needs, my older sister also experiences serious, costly health issues. My siblings and I were raised by a single mother, as my father is a disabled veteran who is unable to provide any support, financial or otherwise. My mother works hard at two different jobs, but the medical debt and ongoing medical expenses are overwhelming. The medical debt is so bad, in fact, that my mother was denied the Parent Plus loan due to some of that medical debt being applied to her credit record. I so desperately desire to move forward in my education, but because of my health issues, I am unable to work and go to school full-time. I feel extremely blessed to have been accepted into the University of Oklahoma's highly esteemed meteorology program, but now I'm praying for funding. Thank you for your consideration as a potential recipient.

Born with profound health issues, I grew up alternating between bouts of sickness and competing in track and cross-country. I started competing young, winning medals at state and traveling for national competitions. In sixth grade, my health completely failed, and I bounced between home and twelve hospitals for two years. This tough time was filled with pain, misery, and deep depression. As my mother worked with many doctors to find solutions for my wide array of health issues, I realized there was no simple cure or easy way to get back into the life I wanted to live. I had to do it myself. Slowly, the doctor’s treatments brought me back from the brink of death. I fought to get through each day, spending two years mostly in bed recovering from the apex of my illness. Still too sick to attend school full-time, I studied coding and technology and then began attending classes at the community college. I learned to push through and attend classes even when I felt like throwing up, and to study, even with migraines and body pains. I’ve undergone multiple surgeries in recent years, but I ride these waves knowing they’re helping me move forward in life. At sixteen, my mother and I helped a family recover after a devastating tornado. They narrowly escaped with their lives and lost nearly everything they owned. That experience left me asking important questions: What causes weather to become so destructive? How can communities be better protected? Can stronger buildings, better forecasting, or improved warning systems save lives? How can we better support communities affected by severe weather? A year later, I experienced two separate tornado near-misses. Those events further strengthened my desire to understand severe weather and contribute to solutions that make communities safer. By combining my interests in coding, technology, and science, I found my future career path in meteorology. I’ll always face chronic, complicated, and costly health challenges, but I choose to apply the same passion in pursuit of a career in meteorology that I once applied to my running. I recognize that my path may be different from others', but that there is still a path for me. This means carefully guarding my sleep, monitoring my diet, doing physical therapy, taking my supplements and medications (which are many multiple times a day), seeing doctors frequently (often multiple times a week), and occasionally having surgeries to maintain the capabilities I have. I recognize that I have to live within my limits, but the past few years at community college have shown me that higher education is within my reach. I’m seeking scholarship assistance because my family has faced significant financial challenges. In addition to my own extensive medical needs, my older sister also experiences serious, costly health issues. My siblings and I were raised by a single mother, as my father is a disabled veteran who is unable to provide any support, financial or otherwise. My mother works hard at two different jobs, but the medical debt and ongoing medical expenses are overwhelming. The medical debt is so bad, in fact, that my mother was denied the Parent Plus loan due to some of that medical debt being applied to her credit record. I so desperately desire to move forward in my education, but because of my health issues, I am unable to work and go to school full-time. I feel extremely blessed to have been accepted into the University of Oklahoma's highly esteemed meteorology program, but now I'm praying for funding. Thank you for your consideration as a potential recipient.

Born with health issues, my childhood was filled with hours of crying from pain, and being diagnosed with failure-to-thrive, migraines, and an abundance of infections. Between bouts of illness, I joined a children’s theater, auditioned for America’s Got Talent, and competed in track and cross-country. I loved life, and running was what I expected to do well into my adulthood. I started competing at a young age, winning state medals and traveling for nationals. Running was a roller coaster between “What an amazing race!” and running fevers for days or weeks. These bouts of illness gave me an intensity in life that, when well enough, I brought to the track as a fierce competitor. That came crashing down in sixth grade, beginning with hallucinations: intense, soul-crushing visions that common sense told me couldn’t be real, but my emotions told me were absolutely terrifying. This started at school, in front of my peers, leaving them horrified and me mortified by their reactions. This led to intense bullying, which I was mercifully pulled away from by the pandemic. Soon, I saw my neurologist, who ran a few unsuccessful tests. She pulled me off my migraine medications (fearing hallucinations may have been a side effect) and dismissed me. Without those medications, which had a side effect of stimulating appetite, I lost the ability to eat well, to sleep much at all, and my physical and mental health spiraled. Multiple body systems began to struggle; I was hospitalized twelve times in the next two years. I was diagnosed with primary-immunodeficiency, encephalitis, compression syndromes, atherosclerosis, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. My stiffening veins were compressed, restricting blood flow to multiple organs, while my joints were loosening and sublaxing. During those miserable years, I went from psychosis to seizures to catatonia, all the while carrying multiple infections requiring medical visits, medications, and surgery. Just in the nick of time, because comas often follow catatonia, my medical treatments began to take hold, and the long descent became a slow ascension back to life. My middle school education was extremely fragmented. I went to high school for two weeks until uncontrolled seizures stopped me. I spent my freshman and sophomore years mostly in bed. The summer before what should have been my junior year, I took a college class and was surprised at my success. That fall, I couldn’t take classes due to a mid-semester surgery. I then took classes for the next three semesters, with one more major surgery squeezed into my last winter break. Amazingly, the University of Oklahoma has offered me a place in their world-class meteorology program, and I’m ecstatic. My health issues have robbed me of many pleasures - like competing athletically through high school and into college or even going to high school at all - but they’ve also taught me some very important lessons. I’ve learned that life is complicated, really complicated. I’ve learned that I have a community of people who love me and are cheering for my success. I’ve learned that, despite my illnesses, I am bright and capable. I’ve learned that if I spend enough time at the college tutoring center, I can learn. My accrued medical debt is out of the roof due to hospitalizations, ambulance rides, doctors’ appointments, prescriptions, supplements, physical therapies, and surgeries. It’s so bad that my mom was denied the Parent Plus loan since my medical debt is negatively impacting her credit score. My dad is not in the picture at all. Thank you for reading my long essay and considering me as a possible recipient for this scholarship. I am grateful for your consideration.