I want to pursue a degree in nursing because of my heart surgery in February of 2025. After having open heart surgery, I spent 5 additional days in the cardiology ICU without being able to do much of anything. While there, I realised that the main reason that I wasn’t completely miserable was the nurses. Since I can’t really repay the nurses who helped me while I was in the ICU, my solution is to pay it forward. The best way for me to pay it forward is to become a nurse and help the next generation of children struggling with medical problems in the hospital. Being a pediatric nurse in an ICU or an ER also seems like a very rewarding career path. It will let me work hands-on while making a difference in the world. For my career, I want to help people because it brings me happiness as well as comfort to those whom I am helping. I enjoy working with other people, and I have gone through substantial medical difficulties throughout my childhood, which in turn makes me better able to understand what my patients will be going through. One of the other reasons that I want to pursue a degree in nursing is that I have met a number of nurses who seem very happy doing what they do. All of the nurses that I have spent time talking to have expressed happiness in being able to help others and have that as a career. The nurses that I have talked to also seem like very cheerful people who are very genuine and care deeply about what they do. I hope to contribute to my community as a pediatric nurse by helping those in need of medical attention. For people to get the proper attention and care that they need, we need more nurses, and I would be able to help with that. Caring for the sick and the injured is something that not everybody wants to do, but it is something that is necessary for society. There would be a societal benefit from my doing nursing. I would also be contributing to my community by giving children in the hospital a happier experience. As a child, spending time in the hospital was a generally miserable experience, but I hope to make it a better one for the patients that I help. Helping others is one of the most positive experiences that I have had.

My inspiration to pursue a career in nursing comes from my experiences as a hospital patient. Growing up with Type 1 Diabetes and a congenital heart condition, I have spent a significant amount of time in regular doctors’ offices, but I have also spent more time than could be considered reasonable in hospital beds. In February of 2025, I had an open-heart surgery to solve a problem created by the surgery that was supposed to fix my congenital heart defect as a baby. After the February heart surgery, I spent 5 more days in the cardiology ICU before being discharged with significant temporary restrictions. While I was in the ICU, I was in a state of constant discomfort, and I was often in significant pain since my collarbone had been split in half for the procedure and then wired back together afterwards. However, my nurses made sure that I was as comfortable as I could be. They ensured that all my needs were met; they showed immense compassion while they cared for me, and they were always very cheerful while they were working. After lying in my hospital bed for a while, I came to understand just how big a difference the nurses make in terms of a patient's overall experience while they are in the hospital. Once I had figured out how impactful nurses are, I found a need to either find a way to repay my nurses for what they had done for me or to pay it forward. Since finding a way to repay the nurses isn’t possible, I feel obligated to pay it forward, and the best way for me to do so is to become a nurse to give the next generation of patients a more positive experience. The phrase “human touch” means the sense of compassion and companionship felt through acts of care and service to another. The individual who feels the “human touch” should not only feel cared for but recognized as an individual, and in the moment of care, they should feel indispensable, unique, and irreplaceable. The phrase “human touch” can also refer to the kind of interaction between caretaker and patient; the patient should feel like a person, but they should also be able to mentally feel the humanity of the caretaker. “Human touch” creates a bond between two people so that the treatment given by the caretaker feels like an act of love instead of just an act of necessity. “Human touch” impacts patient care because it decides whether or not the patient truly feels cared for. Even if their physical needs have been met, a patient will never feel truly cared for until their humanity and individuality have been recognized tangibly. This need for the human touch is evident: patients who feel more cared for recover faster. The impact of the “human touch” on patient care is extremely important for nurses to understand, as it provides a reason to care about their patients. “Human touch” can make a very large difference in how a patient recovers because the patients who feel it are given a reason to recover. When a patient feels the “human touch” from their caretakers, they are given the feeling that they matter. When somebody feels needed, they are much more motivated to recover because they feel connected to others instead of alone in their suffering. For me, “human touch” means caring for someone as if they were your best friend. For somebody to feel “human touch”, you need to care for them as you would care for your best friend. By placing that much importance on their care, it ensures that they will feel cared for. “Human touch” is one of the most critical parts of a patient's stay while they are being cared for because of how impactful it can be for their recovery.

I am a creative person who struggles to sit still and loves helping others. I make a lot of complicated origami, and I often use my origami skills to create artwork for others and custom present wrappings. I am also an amateur woodworker; most of what I do is simple puzzles and boxes, but I still find it quite enjoyable. Growing up with Type 1 diabetes and a heart condition, being physically active for extended periods of time was often quite difficult. However, these medical conditions failed to serve as a deterrent from extreme physical activities; I spend time outdoors rock climbing and rappelling, bicycling, and exploring. Over the summer, I went on a backpacking trek with some of the other guys in my Boy Scout troop simply because it sounded fun. In February of 2025, I had open-heart surgery to help correct my aortic stenosis. The effects of the aortic stenosis had gotten progressively worse through each year of high school, and my cardiologist thought that it was best if I had the procedure done before I went off to college. Aortic stenosis and Type 1 diabetes have been the main sources of adversity in my life. Diabetes has gotten in the way of my spending long periods of time playing sports or being physically active for my entire life. I overcame the adversity of diabetes and aortic stenosis, both of which can cause energy drain and interfere with physical activity due to health and safety risks, by learning how to manage their risks. I also figured out different ways of mitigating the risks of a medical episode occurring so that I could do more with less risk. I plan to make a positive impact on the world through pediatric nursing by providing a better experience for patients. Because of the amount of time I have spent in the hospital throughout my childhood, I will be able to better empathize with the patients that I am caring for. My ability to empathize with my patients will allow me to care for them better than I would be able to without my own hospital experiences. I will effectively be paying it forward to the next generation of patients in the hospital. My goal is to go back and work at OU Children’s Hospital so that not only will I be paying it forward, but I will be giving back to the place that invested a substantial amount of time in caring for me.

One meaningful act of kindness and support that I offered someone was comforting one of the other members of my school choir after a memorial mass that we sang at. Over the previous summer, one of the staff members at our school died unexpectedly. Every year, our school has a memorial mass for all of the people connected to the school who have died in the past year. Peyton had known the deceased staff member both in and out of school, so her death had a powerful effect on him. While we were singing the last song of the Mass, he stopped singing and broke down in silent tears. I put an arm around him and finished singing the song to maintain my reverence, but as soon as the song was over, I set my music down and attempted to console him. After asking one of the other choir members to find some tissues, Peyton and I sat in the choir loft with my arm around him and his head resting on my shoulder. This moment was important because the unspoken message of “I am here for you” spoke to him louder than any words that I could have said to him. Sitting with him and comforting him in silence gave him support while he tried to come to terms with the unfortunate reality that death can happen at any time to the people we care about most. I have helped create belonging in my Boy Scout troop by always welcoming new scouts. Every time a new scout visits our troop to see if he wants to join, I make sure to learn their name and include them in everything that we do. I do the same thing with scouts whose first interaction with the troop is the meeting when they join. I make a point of always learning the names of visitors and new scouts because I am the oldest scout in the troop, which means that many other scouts in the troop will follow my example. By setting the example of welcoming new scouts, our troop has become a more open and welcoming place because of the other scouts who have chosen to follow my example of inclusivity. This inclusivity fosters a sense of belonging among troop members because they have grown to know each other. The sense of belonging even extends to visitors because they are treated like members of the troop from the moment that they walk through the door to our meeting place. Even though I will be aging out of Boy Scouts soon, I will be leaving behind a legacy of leadership and inclusivity that should last well beyond my time in the troop.

The teacher who has influenced me the most throughout my time in high school is Mr. Boeckman. Even though I did not have any of his classes until this year, I have known who he was for all four years of high school, and I have known him as a person since about halfway through last year. At the beginning of my second semester as a junior, I was informed that I would need to have open-heart surgery within a couple of months. A couple of weeks before the surgery, a group of junior and senior boys went on a spiritual retreat with some of the male teachers from our school. On this retreat, I got to know Mr. Boeckman. Not only is he a very caring individual, but his approach to life showed me how I could be a better person. Mr. Boeckman drives a bus to pick up students across the city before school, drives buses for field trips, sports teams, retreats, teaches all of the senior theology classes, and still finds a way to spend time with his friends and family. Through his efforts, he ensures that different school programs continue to function well, and yet he somehow always has a moment to spend time talking to a student when they are having a hard time, if they have a philosophy question, or even if they just want to say hi. At the start of my senior year, Mr. Boeckman told his classes that even though it was a theology class, we would be looking at philosophy and other world religions as well. He did not want us to just understand our own religion; he wanted us to be able to understand the belief systems of others and to be able to understand why they acted the way they did. Through his class, we have looked at various religious beliefs and philosophies, and even some of Plato's work, and then connected various concepts and applied them to different parts of life today. His class has encouraged me to examine my own life and look at how I could make it better. I have looked at various philosophies that we explored in his class and reshaped my life to be more open because of them. His class has taught me that if I am going to commit to something, I need to give it my full commitment and follow through with things until there are no loose ends. His class has also shown me just how far a little bit of understanding can go, which has made me try to be as understanding as I can in my own life. His class has had a more direct and meaningful impact on my life than any other class that I have taken in high school.

I am a creative student who struggles to sit still in class. In class, I can often be seen fidgeting with my pen, doodling in a notebook, or folding origami. Recently, I have also started designing 3D wooden puzzles to make in the back of my calculus notebook. Sometimes, I can also be heard singing quietly in class or walking through the halls or stairwells. I have been a part of my school’s choir for all four years of high school, and I am also participating in the musical this year because of the immense joy singing brings me. I almost always have a song stuck in my head, and sometimes I just can’t help but sing it to try to spread a little more joy in the world. Outside of school, I spend time outdoors camping and hiking both with my Boy Scout troop and my friends. Spending time in the outdoors is one of my favorite things to do. Over the summer of 2025, I backpacked about 80 miles through the Sangre de Cristo mountains with a small group of people from my Boy Scout troop. Apart from Boy Scouts, my other extracurricular activity is singing in a barbershop chorus. Singing with the chorus is one of my favorite parts of the week because it is a truly unique style of music and a great group of people to be around. We do shows throughout the year, and the chorus has also gone caroling downtown during the Christmas season. Post-high school, I plan to go through a two-and-a-half year program to get an associate's degree in nursing. I feel compelled to study nursing because of the amount of time I have spent around nurses, even though I am only 17. As a Type 1 diabetic and someone with a congenital heart defect, I have spent a substantial amount of time in doctors’ offices and hospital rooms. I had a heart procedure as a baby, and then more recently, I had open-heart surgery in February of 2025. After the open-heart surgery, I spent 6 days in the cardiology ICU. Because of this experience, I firmly believe that it is the nurses who have the greatest effect on your overall experience in the hospital. This belief is what, in turn, makes me feel compelled to become a nurse and work at a children’s hospital. I want to become a nurse so that I can pay it forward to the next generation of kids who will have to spend time in the hospital instead of with their friends. Given the opportunity, I would start a charity to help children who have to spend a substantial amount of time in doctors’ offices and hospital rooms. It is often a very emotionally draining experience that can harm someone’s mental health. By creating a charity to provide emotional and mental support for other children who go through this, I would be able to further give back to the world after the support that I felt post-surgery in February. Volunteers would spend time with patients, talking to them and playing games, or bringing support animals to help make the overall hospital experience more pleasant.

My congenital heart defect has had an effect on me for my entire life. When I was born, my aortic valve was too small, so I underwent a procedure with a balloon catheter to expand the valve. However, the doctors warned my parents that this might tear a small hole in the valve that would probably require another surgery in the future. The doctors were right. As a small child, I was always running around and full of energy because the aortic stenosis from the hole in my aortic valve was still just mild. I played soccer, rode my bike, and for the most part acted like a completely normal child. As I entered middle school, my energy began to decrease. To me, it just seemed like regular school burnout, so I ignored it and continued to play soccer and be a very physically active child with slightly less physical stamina. Entering high school was the moment when everything started changing quickly. During the summer between eighth grade and freshman year, my cardiologist retired and moved to Florida. When I met my new cardiologist, he was a very energetic doctor who grew up in Boy Scouts, as I did, and who enjoyed riding a bicycle. When he met me, listened to my heart, and looked at the results from the ultrasound he had ordered, he warned me that I would realistically need open heart surgery before I went to college. Going into freshman year, my aortic stenosis was still only mild. However, in the second semester, I took a weightlifting class and played high school soccer. As it turns out, this wasn’t a very smart decision because in a single semester, my aortic stenosis went from mild to moderate to severe. For my sophomore year, I took a break from athletics, but I was still constantly tired because my heart was having to work harder to pump oxygenated blood through my body. When we met with my cardiologist between sophomore and junior year, I informed him of my plan to attempt a BSA Philmont trek during the summer of 2025. When I told him about this, he told me that I would be taking a risk with my heart condition and ordered a stress test. Following the stress test at the beginning of my junior year, he called us back to his office to talk and informed me that for him to sign off on me going to Philmont, I would need open-heart surgery. In mid-February, we got a call from the cardiology department at the hospital offering a couple of dates for a heart surgery that would still give me enough recovery time to be able to go on my backpacking trek. I chose the sooner of the two, and less than a week later, on February 17th, I checked into OU Children’s Hospital for the Ross Procedure. After spending six miserable days in the cardiology ICU post surgery, I was discharged from the hospital and sent home to recover for another week. After missing two weeks of school, I was practically bouncing off the walls because I hadn’t seen my friends, and I didn’t want any more classwork to make up than what was necessary. I struggled through the rest of my junior year, but I passed all my classes and my AP tests. Over the summer, I even got to complete my backpacking trip due to a well-timed heart surgery. Realistically, I will need future heart surgeries every 10 years to ensure that my aortic valve continues to function optimally.