My name is Halle Kuzminski, I am a senior from Warren Area High School, in a small Pennsylvania town. In January I committed to Penn State-Altoona to study Business, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. I also signed my letter of intent to play college basketball. Growing up in a small town I am always outdoors. I love riding four wheelers in the woods, swimming, hiking, and riding horses. I also adore reading a great book in a hammock. I volunteer often, as I love to give back to my community. I help run basketball camps to get young children involved in the game that has treated me so well. I think it’s important for kids to find a hobby that they actually enjoy. I go into nursing homes to do crafts with the elders, and I have also volunteered at preschools by reading stories with the kids. I chose to study Business, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship because I find joy in creating things that people need or enjoy. I also love the creativity it takes to have this career. Through my study of Business and Marketing I want to be able to make life easier for American consumers. Marketing helps to create economic development, which is crucial and the reason that America is at the technological advance it is. Marketing allows more capital to be produced which allows more jobs and careers to develop. Not only, do I want to help consumers, but I want to produce fun things for people to part take in. As for my career I intend to become an Athletic Marketing Director. This job speaks to me because I have a great appreciation for sports. My goal is to help bring attention to athletes who deserve recognition for their hard work. My career can leave a positive impact on the world because I want to help bring positive and loving attention to athletes. Many athletes have struggled with mental health due to the media's harsh, negative, and threatening talk. My goal is to market these sports and draw more people in, but also create an environment that respects people and allows people to be their best self without being criticized for it. I have always wanted to be a basketball coach. I want to impact the world by getting women’s sports more credit. I want to be able to help change children’s lives and prepare them for their lives after high school or college. I want to be a support for people’s dreams and goals. My compassion, dedication, and determination to bringing a healthy environment for athletes is how I can positively change the world. If people support others, it makes life much simpler.

My name is Halle Kuzminski. I am a senior in high school, and I am committed to Penn State Altoona where I will study Business, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. I will be joining the Sheetz fellows’ program where I will get hands on experience in the world of business by working with local businesses, going on a study abroad trip where students learn about businesses that are in another area but also work internationally. I plan on earning an MBA and desire to be an Athletic Marketing Director at a large university. While attending Altoona, I will also play collegiate basketball for the AMCC conference. I am a first-generation college student, everything in the college process has been new and eye opening for both my parents and me. We have spent countless hours completing FAFSA, paying fees, and figuring out all I need to attend college. Alone, I have applied for many scholarships and grants as I will be paying for college myself, with some help from my parents for monthly needs. This scholarship would help relieve stress from my parents as well as myself because this is all foreign to us. I have set high standards for my schooling, grades, and my career path. This scholarship can help me achieve these goals if I don’t have to constantly worry about paying for school, I can focus more on my grades. I am a dedicated person. I have played basketball since I was in kindergarten, and I have helped run basketball skill camps to spread my knowledge and love of the game. My hopes are that children will learn how sports can help improve your life and prepare you for the real world. In basketball I have learned so many important life skills of confidence, standing up for myself and my beliefs, as well as becoming an involved person. My dream has always been to become a coach. In college I have the opportunity to work with coaches and participate in a program that allows me to sit with the coaches and in on the practices to learn how to coach a college sport. This scholarship can greatly help me achieve this opportunity, as I want to give back to the game I love. I also think its important for children to have a good coach who help them improve and love the game. I have also had experience in volunteering. I have volunteered at nursing homes to create crafts with the elderly, and I volunteer for the Kinzua Heritage Festival, which is a festival to express the Native American culture of my hometown. Giving back to the community is important to me because it has served me well as I have lived here, and I just enjoy doing it. At my college there is a student group that helps students adjust to different changes in their lives and also helps to collect food for food drives and collect money for charity. This scholarship would help me be able to join this group to help give back. I am a hard worker and will do anything that needs done, whether it be simple or difficult. This scholarship could help relieve me of so much stress and anxiety about paying for college and it could really change my life and allow me to open myself up to other opportunities and give back.

I am a basketball player, one who has played since kindergarten. I grew up surrounded by the whistles on the court, the scoreboard that held the score, the buzzer to signify the game was over and my team has just won. In eighth grade my parents told me that we were moving to a new school so I would have a better chance at continuing my athletic career into college. I was incredibly sad; I wasn’t going to graduate with my best friends that I grew up with and spent almost everyday with. Everything I knew was changing. I moved my freshman year, unfamiliar hallways, teachers, and students. Everything so changed. I felt lost, until I had my first basketball practice. Suddenly, everything felt better. I gained a family from the very first practice I had. Even though moving to this new school brought me the best team I have ever been part of I was still struggling. I lost the confidence I once had. I felt out of place and uncomfortable, in a new school and having to make new friends, having to talk in front of people I have never met. I gained my confidence because of my coaches and by my junior year I felt more confident as a person on and off the court. My senior year I severely sprained my ankle, and I had to miss four games. I was crushed, my last year of high school ball and I had an injury. As I began playing again, I struggled with the pain, all throughout the season I faced swelling and tape cuts from my ankle being taped so tight, so I could play without the pain. I battled through it, and it was worth it. I played basketball for the Warren Dragons, a program known for its difficulty and its success. Freshman year I became the 6th man; in that program playing as a freshman on varsity is not common. My freshman and sophomore year my team won the District 10 Championship. My freshman year I earned JV player of the Year. My junior year my team was Region Champions but fell short of the championships, and it left me hungry for more. My junior year I was nominated onto the Region all-star team, and I began working all summer long to get better. My senior year I was listed on the top 50 District 10 Players to Watch list. Once again, we won the region championships and were sent into the D10 game, we came up short by 2 points. We weren’t ready for the season to end. After that game we went on to the PIAA state playoff game. My team won our first ever in school history state playoff game. My senior year I won the Team Captain award, Defensive Player of the Year and was elected to the Region All-Stars team again, and was invited to a Big 30 game of the best players in my district in PA. My senior year I also committed to Penn State Altoona to study Business and Marketing and continue playing basketball. From basketball I learned that life is full of obstacles and will throw you all different kinds of curveballs, that can alter the path you are headed down. Basketball has taught me to have confidence in who I am as a person and to show off my confidence by taking risks. Basketball has shown me to stand up for my beliefs in who I am and what I support. Without basketball I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am.