Growing up, I didn’t always have everything I wanted, but I was never without the most important thing—resilience. Raised by my mother, who single-handedly cared for me and my six siblings after my father left, I learned early on that life doesn’t hand you success, but you can work for it. My mom showed me what it means to be resilient, to bounce back after every setback. Her unwavering strength inspired me to pursue my dreams with the same tenacity, especially when it came to helping others. One of my most defining experiences was growing up with sports. As an athlete, I experienced firsthand the struggles that come with being sidelined by a sprain or strain. But what helped me push through was the empathy and care I received from my physical therapist, who helped me return to the game I loved. That experience ignited my passion for physical therapy. I want to help athletes get back in the game, but I also want to work with older adults to improve their mobility, so they can live their best lives. In addition to my academic pursuits, I’ve always believed in the power of giving back. I’ve volunteered as a coach for youth sports and contributed to non-profits like Girls on the Run. Through these experiences, I’ve learned the importance of supporting my community and empowering others, especially the younger generation. This scholarship is not just financial aid to me; it is a key that will help unlock my potential. It will ease some of the financial burdens that come with grad school, allowing me to focus on my studies and professional growth. More importantly, it will empower me to continue my journey in physical therapy, where I can make a difference in people’s lives.

My name is Hunter Ohm, and I am currently an undergraduate student at Kent State University. I am planning to pursue my Doctorate in Physical Therapy at Youngstown State University, and my ultimate goal is to become a physical therapist who can make a meaningful impact in both the athletic and general populations. I am applying for this scholarship because of my dedication to helping others, my passion for sports, and my ambition to make a positive difference in my community and the world. One of the ways I have already begun to make a difference in my community is through volunteering. I have always believed that giving back is essential to creating a positive environment for everyone. I have had the privilege of coaching youth sports, an experience that has allowed me to mentor and guide young athletes while fostering a love for physical activity. Additionally, I have volunteered with organizations like Girls on the Run, where I helped empower young girls through running and self-confidence-building exercises. Through these volunteer experiences, I’ve learned the value of serving others and the importance of supporting individuals from all walks of life. My passion for helping people goes beyond volunteering. I am deeply committed to pursuing a career in physical therapy because it aligns with my drive to make a lasting, positive impact on others. As an athlete myself, I understand how injuries can disrupt lives and hinder people from doing the things they love. I’ve had my share of injuries in sports, and I’ve always been inspired by the rehabilitation process that helped me recover and return to playing the sports I love. I want to help others, whether they are athletes recovering from injury or older adults seeking to improve their mobility and overall quality of life. I am especially excited about the possibility of working with both athletes and older adults, as I believe these two groups can benefit greatly from physical therapy. Athletes often push their bodies to the limit, and when they get injured, it can feel devastating. I want to provide them with the highest level of care, so they can return to the field or court as quickly and safely as possible. On the other hand, older adults often face challenges related to mobility, and I believe that physical therapy can help them maintain their independence and improve their day-to-day lives. Both groups are equally important to me, and I plan to serve them with dedication and empathy. I am applying for this scholarship because I am ambitious, driven, and passionate about making a difference. I have set clear goals for myself, and I am committed to reaching them. By pursuing a career in physical therapy, I plan to contribute to my community and beyond by helping people recover, stay active, and live healthier, more fulfilling lives. This scholarship will not only support my academic journey but will also help me continue to work toward making a lasting impact on the lives of others. I believe I should be selected for this scholarship because of my unwavering commitment to helping others, my dedication to my studies, and my drive to make a difference in the field of physical therapy. I am excited to take the next steps in my education and career, and I look forward to using the knowledge and skills I gain to positively impact the world around me.

My mother’s influence on my life has been profound and shaped me into the person I am today. Raising seven children on her own after my father left us when I was young, she demonstrated unparalleled strength, resilience, and empathy. Her ability to overcome adversity and provide for us despite countless challenges taught me invaluable life lessons that have impacted my personal and professional aspirations. One of the most striking qualities my mother exhibited was her strength. Raising a large family by herself required hard work and determination. Watching her work and keeping the family together inspired me to approach life with the same tenacity. Her work ethic left a lasting impression on me, encouraging me to work hard and persevere no matter the obstacles. I learned early on that success doesn't come easily, and that it takes dedication and grit to achieve your goals. Her example taught me that no matter how difficult life becomes, the key is to keep pushing forward and never give up. Beyond her strength, my mother also showed me the importance of being smart with money. She was always careful with her finances, cutting out unnecessary expenses to make sure we had what we needed. This mindset not only kept us afloat during tough times, but it also taught me the value of financial responsibility—a lesson I carry with me today. I learned how important it is to make thoughtful, intentional decisions with money, as financial stability can be a critical factor in achieving long-term success. Perhaps one of the most powerful lessons my mother instilled in me was resilience. I remember a particular incident when her car was broken into, and a significant amount of money and other personal items were stolen. While many people would have been devastated by such a setback, my mother simply took it in stride. She didn’t dwell on the loss. Instead, she worked even harder to ensure that our needs were met, showing me how important it is to keep moving forward in the face of adversity. I watched her get back up time and time again, no matter what life threw her way, and this resilience became a cornerstone of my own character. I learned from her that setbacks are a part of life, but it is how you respond to them that truly defines you. In addition to her strength and resilience, my mother’s emotional support and kindness had a significant impact on me. Despite facing overwhelming stress and challenges, she always made time to listen and offer guidance. Her ability to be there for us emotionally, to support us through difficult times, and to show kindness to others, even when she was struggling herself, taught me the importance of empathy. I realized that, no matter how hard life gets, showing kindness and understanding to those around you is one of the most valuable things you can do. My mother taught me that empathy and compassion are key to building meaningful relationships and making a positive impact in the world. My mother’s influence has shaped my character and my values in ways that I will carry with me throughout my life. She raised me to be kind, resilient, and strong in the face of any challenge. Her ability to keep moving forward, no matter what, has inspired me to do the same in my own life. She taught me the importance of financial responsibility, hard work, and, above all, empathy. These lessons have not only shaped who I am today but also continue to guide me as I pursue my personal and professional goals.

Pursuing a Career in Medicine: A Journey Shaped by Family, Sports, and Empathy Growing up, I was always surrounded by the medical field, thanks to my mother, a dedicated nurse. Her work inspired me to respect the profession and sparked my interest in healthcare. However, it wasn’t just my family background that drove me toward a career in medicine—it was also my personal experiences with sports injuries and the people who helped me heal. From a young age, I was passionate about sports, particularly soccer. Playing competitively, I was no stranger to the physical toll sports can take on the body. Sprains, strains, and injuries became a common part of my life. My senior year of high school, in particular, tested my resilience when I suffered a grade 2 ankle sprain that kept me sidelined for four weeks. It was a painful and frustrating experience, not only because I had to miss several games, but also because I knew how much I loved the sport and how hard it would be to return to my peak performance. During this challenging period, I had the opportunity to work closely with a physical therapist who played a pivotal role in my recovery. They didn’t just treat me like another patient—they genuinely cared about my progress, understood my goals, and worked tirelessly to get me back on the field as quickly and safely as possible. The personalized attention and dedication I received left a lasting impression on me. My therapist’s guidance and compassion inspired me to pursue a career in physical therapy, where I could make the same positive impact on others that my therapist had on me. The combination of my love for sports, my firsthand experience with rehabilitation, and my desire to help others led me to explore physical therapy as a potential career path within the medical field. I know from personal experience how devastating it can feel to be sidelined by an injury, and I want to be part of the solution. The rehabilitation process is not only about physical recovery but also emotional support and motivation. I believe my background in sports and my own experience with injury will allow me to connect with patients and provide them with the empathy and encouragement they need to persevere through their own healing journeys. In addition to my personal experiences, my mother’s role as a nurse continues to influence my perspective on medicine. I’ve seen the dedication and compassion that healthcare professionals bring to their work, and I admire the meaningful difference they make in people’s lives. This has reinforced my desire to pursue a career where I can combine my passion for sports with my desire to help others. Ultimately, I am drawn to a career in physical therapy because of the rewarding nature of the work and the opportunity to make a tangible difference in people’s lives. I want to use my experiences, both as an athlete and as someone who has benefited from rehabilitation, to inspire and support others on their path to recovery. The lessons I’ve learned through my own injuries, along with my mother’s influence, have shaped my commitment to pursuing a career in medicine where I can have a lasting impact on others.

I think the main thing that makes me proud to be an American is seeing how far we have come from slavery and times of treating African Americans like property. I believe that as a country the one thing a citizen could ask for is the development and improvement of ones country over time. I believe that we have not only done that but excelled at it. We were a disgusting country in my eyes back then. Being able to treat another human like property and making them your slaves has got to be one of the most vile and disgusting things a country can do. Nowadays, people of all races come together and celebrate as friends and lovers. This is something to be very proud of. The fact that our ancestors used to treat people like garbage on the side of the road just because they had more melanin than others is ridiculous. I am not going to ever sit by and say that is ok. That is why now I am proud to be an American because I go and talk to people of all races and do not blink an eye. I do not care about the color of their skin. I am just focused on who they are. This goes to show that society itself is changing because the reason racism exists is that it is taught, therefore, less and less people are being taught that they should hate people for the color of their skin. This is why I love my country. Needless to say, there is still a lot to be done to get equality between everyone. This is where my gripe lies with our country. I want to see our country become one that fully accepts everyone for who they and to not judge on things as superficial as skin tone and squinted eyes. I really would like to see the stereotypes surrounding different races disappear all together. I cannot stand that stuff. To help implement this change I will make sure that the kids I coach in soccer do not treat any teammates differently based on race. If they say something about race I will shut it down immediately. I will also help in protests and support BLM to further the progress toward an equal and overall better country. Rome was not built in a day, so I do not expect immediate results but I will keep going and going until I either pass away or see the change I want. Thank you for your time and consideration

My main goal for my future is to be successful. To me being successful means being able to live without worry and being able to do whatever I want to do. That is my broad goal. I have subgoals to get me there as well. First, I want to get through college with a GPA of at least 3.8. Then I want to get into PT school to get my doctorate for physical therapy. After that I want to work in a hospital for around ten years. I then want to open my own practice and do that for the rest of my working career. All these things will set me up for the success I desire. Outside of work related things, I will also invest to make extra money. I have already created a Roth IRA and I plan to invest into that for the rest of my life. I will make sure that I stick to these goals, so I can acquire the future that I want.

During my years in high school I was in a few sports. Soccer was the main one in which I was a captain for three years. It was my jib to teach the younger players not only the game, but more important things like sportsmanship and maturity. Over those three years I have had many parents and players tell me how good of a captain I was. I took that to heart and decided I would keep improving myself along with my teammates. I wanted my teammates to become mature and to not go for revenge if another player did something dirty. I think I achieved this because my team got a sportsmanship award the year after I got off the team. Therefore I believe I did a good job helping them grow as people. I believe I had a positive impact on my younger teammates and that is all I have ever wanted.

I think that currently the biggest problem right now would have to be covid. Not only did it cause a ton of people to lose their jobs, it caused the stock market to crash as well. We have finally started to recover from it and now a new strand has become prevalent. This strand, Omnicron, is causing a lot of problems. The cases of covid are rising everywhere and its causing alarm. We may have to shut down and go into quarantine again, even though this strand has not caused many deaths. If this were to happen not only would a ton of people lose jobs, but the stock market would crash again. We might not make it out again this time if this were to happen, so it is imperative to prevent it. To do this people must get vaccinated. Although it seems like getting the vaccine would be a waste because vaccinated people are still getting covid, it will at least slow the spread until a more efficient vaccine can be created. If we are to do this we may be able to get out of this pandemic unscathed. Most people do not want to get this and claim it is for religious reasons or because they do not trust it, which is valid. However, at some point we as a society must come together to try and prevent something way worse. If we do this America can be saved from possible destruction. This is what I think.

In my life I apply creativity everyday. I love weightlifting and I apply my creativity to this. I like to mix up and create new combinations of exercising to improve myself everyday. I have created some of my own workout routines that have shown me progress over the year. I also apply my creativity to my diet. I try out of the bow food combinations to see what is good with what. I have come up with one that I will eat for the rest of my life. I put salsa on my scrambled eggs and it might just be the best idea I have ever come up with. I also put peanut butter in oatmeal, which is super good as well. These things are very important to me because I really love being healthy. I feel like most people follow a super strict and bland diet and workout routine, but I like to be creative with mine.

As a kid I was always taught to be myself and to not just follow what others do. In my daily life there are lots of temptations for changing myself. Social media makes it very hard to stay true to yourself. I see all these people partying and hanging out with their friends and it makes me want the same thing. I know that doing the things they do are not me, so I try and tell myself that I really do not want that. I try to ignore these things on social media everyday, so that I do not change and try to become someone else to get more friends. Also, there are other temptations from my friends to do things I know I would not do if I was not asked. My friends ask me to do things, but I think it through and decide not to do the things they ask if they go against who I am as a person. I try and make sure to follow this everyday so that I can stay true to who I am, but I am not perfect. I know that sometimes things on social media will change me and my friends will as well, but I will try my best to avoid this.

When I was in middle school, I was very bad at school. I was barely passing and my parents were starting to breathe down my neck. I was also sick of being terrible at school and so I decided to work harder. For the first couple years I saw no improvement at all. I was just bad at school. It was so frustrating and I remember an instance when my mom said she was disappointed in me and I started bawling my eyes out. I wanted to quit school and give up. I decided one day that I needed to suck it up and work harder until I improved. By the time I was in eighth grade I got my first A on a report card, I was happy, but not satisfied. I continued to study and do my work and by the end of eight grade I had three A's and two B's on my report card. I finally became a good student and it was because I was persistent and did not give up, even when I was failing. Now I am in college and I have a 3.7 GPA.

I remember back when I was little I went camping for the first time. I had to be around 8 years old. I recall smelling the air and thinking it smelled so fresh. The noises of the crickets was so soothing to me and the nice gentle breeze felt great. At that moment I realized that I wanted to camp and be outdoors as much as possible. I fell in love with how relaxed nature made me. I try to camp every chance I get, especially when I am stressed out about things. As for how I try to appreciate nature, I make sure to recycle when I get the chance and I always pick up trash off the ground and throw it away. I hate seeing our beautiful world littered with trash. I know I can do more than that and I will in the future. I would like to donate to anything that has to do with saving the trees because I believe that is very important. Until then I will continue to do my part to keep nature as nice as I remember it being when I was a kid.

For me school has always been kind of hard. I feel like I have to study harder than the normal person. I remember a time when I had to study for a biology exam and I ended up studying for a week straight just to get a B. My friend said he studied the night before and got an A. After that I decided it was time to switch up my strategy. As of now I am going into my second semester of college. The way I study for things is unorthodox but it works for me. First I make sure to highlight key words in each sentence when I take notes. Then when I go to study, I make sure to read over each thing exactly three times out loud. Reading it out loud makes it easier for me to remember. If I need to remember a paragraph of something, I will do the same thing and then I will write it out three times until I have it down word for word. That is what I do to study for most things.

I grew up in a rural area outside of Massillon, Ohio. It was in Stark county. I went to Tuslaw my entire life. Growing up in that area has made me a very caring person. Since our community is so small, most people know each other. As a community we all care about each other, so I believe I have become caring because of it. I can remember a specific instance when I saw my elderly neighbor struggling to shovel their driveway. I could not stand to see this and so I went and helped them out. I cannot speak for others, but I believe that most people would agree that since we are such a small community, we are close and care about each other. Also, I feel as if growing up in this town has made me a person that enjoys the little things and has made me humble. There is not much out here where I live. The only restaurant nearby is a subway inside of a gas station. I enjoy things like riding around on a four wheeler on backroads and camping with family. Things like that are precious to me. I feel if I lived in some city I would be a completely different person than I am now. I appreciate the things I have and I do not brag about my talents or anything. Being in such a welcoming and nice community has caused me to be this way. Tuslaw was a division 5 school in some sports because there were barely any people in the school. Although there were not many people, everybody knew everybody. We did not have much, so growing up there was no reason to be cocky or brag. Most people were pretty humble. As for how I will give back, I will continue helping my neighbors out when I get the chance. I will help shovel driveways when they need help and do whatever else I can. Also I will make certain that I continue helping at the YMCA in Massillon by coaching the youth in soccer and doing whatever else is needed of me. Not only these things, but I intend on helping out financially in the future when I get the job I desire as a physical therapist. This community has given me a lot and made me who I am so I plan on giving back in the future when I am able to.