I am currently a high school senior in a small rural town in Missouri. As a child, I grew up playing sports, helping to raise animals on a farm, and showing dairy cows through 4-H. After suffering a traumatic brain injury as a young teen following a tragic auto accident, I was forced to abandon playing the sports I loved. Overcoming the challenges now in front of me was not easy and when doing the things I loved were potentially now harmful to me, I really struggled. Eventually, with the help of family and friends, I found new hobbies. My new limitations didn’t stop me and I have learned to adapt. Then as a freshman in high school, I found a true passion; welding. From the time I first got into a booth with my FFA advisor and was taught to lay a bead, I just fell in love with the whole process. I found something that quenched my hunger to work with my hands, gave me a challenge, and sparked my interest to see what I could make. Since that first experience, I have welded consistently in high school for 4 years, attended several welding competitions, and competed on agricultural mechanics team that placed at a state level where welding was required. My ability to work with others is outstanding; I have been on contest teams through FFA, participated in 4-H in leadership positions, competed on sports teams for many years, and I have an extensive history in the FFA organization as an officer in my local chapter as well as attending conferences and meetings regularly. I handle multiple tasks very well and have proved it while welding in my classes and when I am working outside of the classroom. I am looking forward to entering trade school as I will be the first in my family to complete trade school or college. My family is not wealthy and I do not have a college fund. I’m responsible for funding my education and this scholarship would help me achieve this dream. I want to receive an outstanding education in the welding trade. I’d like to grow my skillset, acquire industry knowledge, and be a great tradesman. I hope to travel this great country and help build and maintain the infrastructure we all rely on. They say if you find something you love for work, you’ll never work a day in your life. While I know a career in this trade is hard work, I truly love the craft and I look forward to making this my future.

Imagine waking up as a young teen in a hospital room, a neck brace, and strapped to a hospital bed with no idea why you’re there. That is where I found myself as a young teen. I was going to baseball practice with my dad and brother one spring afternoon and woke up in the hospital. We were in a tragic accident that I was life-flighted from. I was very blessed and left that hospital the next day with only a few bumps and bruises but also with a life-changing traumatic brain injury and a testimony to share. No longer able to play sports and several adapting hurdles to overcome, I was driven to not let this event define who I was or alter my outlook on life. Success is not letting the challenges you face become your downfall. It is overcoming despite the hard times. I had to adapt, to see my brain injury not as a defining measure of my abilities, but as an opportunity to change and be better. I have overcome and found a new passion that I hope to make a lifelong career. Not many of my peers have faced adversity to this level in their lives; I feel blessed now that I am here, have purpose, and can chase my dreams. The freedom to choose, the ambition to learn, and the desire to be better; that’s success! If you don’t stop believing in good and aiming to be the good, success will be found.