Growing up in the rural Midwest meant learning about hard work early in life. That hard work was often in the form of chores and maintaining the farm, but was not often emphasized in scholarly study. My mother was a high school graduate and climbed her own career ladder from fast food management to driving a school bus, and finally working for the post office. Her aspirations did not stray far from family and farm. My father, on the other hand, did not even graduate high school. Between the two of them, thoughts of college were self-generated and even more daunting since I had no elders to guide me on the nuances of higher education. Being the first generation to obtain a higher degree raises the bar to how far my family can go. It is a glass ceiling I am smashing and I hope it encourages future generations in my family to pursue success through higher education. My goal is to reach a Ph.D. in Physician Associate Studies, but that is in the distant future. First, my plans include finishing my bachelor's in Allied Health Science with a double minor in Biology and Psychology. Then, I plan to complete a Masters in Physician Associate Studies and practice clinically while working towards the Ph.D. I want to help people in rural areas, much like the one I came from, while working on research in endocrinology (specifically thyroid dysfunction). I have read several papers regarding correlations to the daily things Americans eat and drink that can affect thyroid health and it is my ultimate dream to build on this research and further prevention and treatment of thyroid disorders. My goals are far more than making my family proud (which they are) or becoming successful (which I hope to be). I want to make a difference in the lives of others. I want to become that caring, empathetic provider that makes a patient feel cared for and heard. I want to heal the sick, mend the wounded, and help innovate medicine for future generations. I want to be the hands and heart that reaches rural communities that desperately need more healthcare providers. There are so many areas in need of compassionate healthcare providers, that many wait weeks or months just to be seen by someone, or they travel excessive distances in order to get the care they need. In its simplest terms, I want to make a difference both in my family, the community, and health care itself.

It has been almost a decade since the "ice bucket challenge" swept social media, filling newsfeeds with countless people dowsing themselves in ice water, but only a fraction of those participants truly remember the symbolism behind the movement. ALS has been impacting people around me since childhood and watching those you care about slowly lose control of themselves is a daily heartbreak that cannot be understood simply by an icy bath. Instead of feeling like a helpless bystander, I hope to aid in research to identify the cause of incident increase in the disease and help lead research toward future prevention. I first heard of ALS when learning about the famous baseball player, Lou Gehrig. While his retirement and passing were decades before my time, my first exposure to the disease was under his name, rather than amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The name did not carry much meaning other than learning of my beloved pastor's diagnosis and being told that meant he was very ill. I watch every Sunday as the charismatic man who led the service slowly withered away. Despite his battles, he was a generous and benevolent man who put his congregation ahead of his troubles. Months before losing his ability to walk, he was beside my grandfather's bed. My grandfather was dying from cancer, and my pastor would not let his disease stand in the way of comforting a parishioner and friend. He left very large shoes to fill when he finally succumbed to ALS and the church was never the same after his passing. Many years later I found myself befriending another person in my social circles battling ALS. Former NFL player, Steve Gleason, was the named presenter at a local 5k and I quickly became a proponent for Team Gleason. With Steve at the forefront during 5k runs and social events surrounding the Saints and New Orleans, the group worked to spread awareness and raise money for research. I participated in several events and helped to fundraise for ALS research, but the same heartbreak is unavoidable when you are helpless to watch someone fight the losing battle against the disease. That helpless feeling is one of the reasons I chose to pursue a degree in medicine. It is my goal to work clinically as a physician associate while completing a PhD in medical research. I want to work both clinically and at the forefront to discover the causes behind diseases, like ALS. It is hard to deny the increase in incidence and too easy to simply blame an increase in life expectancy and the aging population on that increase. I believe there are other mitigating circumstances, such as genetics and environmental factors that could be accountable for such increases. It is my dream to use this scholarship to support my education and propel me to a career where I can further research and hopefully expose some of the mysteries to why people get ALS and ways it might be prevented and treated. No one should suffer the slow loss of their body control and I hope to save others from that helplessness.

Generations all too often think the children of the next are misguided, lazy, or careless in their lives. As a college student who fits in the middle of Millennial and Gen X, I have a unique perspective bridging generations and surrounded by fellow students a generation after the one in which I grew up. I don't see a lazy generation or acceptance of the current dystopian society that we currently find ourselves struggling through. The newest generation is more adaptable, which may feign acceptance from the outside, but their youth and energy provide an ability to learn and grow from the challenges facing the world today. There was a time before my generation where one parent could support the family while the other stayed home to raise the children. There was a bigger sense of community despite the lack on internet. Whether these things were taken advantage of or neglected in the course of getting to the struggles of today is unclear, but it is the perpetual tenacity of this and future generations that will help life on this planet continue despite the trials it encounters. People are creative and intelligent, which endures from one generation to the next. Today's Gen Z may not be identical to the original Greatest Generation, but they also have a different society surrounding them and different problems to solve. It is not so far-fetched to think that both were cut from the same cloth.

Growing up in a farming family, college was not an expectation, nor was it discussed in plans for the future. My mom had never considered college and my father never graduated high school, so it was a little surprising for them when their oldest child excelled academically. I was very competitive in school and worked hard to maintain top grades while participating in clubs and sports. I poured myself into everything from girl scouts and 4-H to marching band and academic team. I volunteered through the clubs and the church, often spending time in nursing homes and animal shelters to help out wherever needed. That spirit of caring and helping others sparked my desire to pursue a career in medicine. I love solving problems and helping others. It started small, as a child, by helping transport residents from the nursing home to the church next door on Sundays and grew into doing more, such as working as a CNA after graduating high school. The joy I found in helping others filled some unexplainable inner drive, yet I still wanted to do more and felt like what I was doing was not enough. I spent days volunteering at disaster areas, such as the Denham Springs floods and the Hurricane Ida recovery. Many hot days were spent salvaging for people who lost nearly everything and removing piles of water-damaged debris. I counseled those who felt the effects of the tragedy, and in doing so felt a much greater impact. The hope visibly growing on their faces day by day was something that pushed me to seek a career in medicine. I have pushed hard to maintain my academic excellence in my first two years of undergraduate school and have a dream to give much more help and hope to the world. As a physician associate, I plan to utilize my academic excellence to provide the best care to those in need. I hope to work in internal medicine, emergency, or hospitalist to be impactful to people in the most urgent need. While working in a clinical setting, I plan to serve as often as possible in areas that desperately need health care. I have a goal of serving on Mercy Ships and spending time in remote medical clinics abroad. Yet, the clinical and volunteer work is only the beginning of my goals. Outside of treating patients, I plan to conduct research and work toward a Ph.D. Thyroid disorder and its explosive rise has been a subject very close to me in the last decade and I want to personally contribute to unraveling the causes behind the rise in frequency as well as generate better diagnosis and treatment methods. So many are misdiagnosed or treated with protocols as so satisfy the labs, but not the patients. This is something I hope to correct as the patient should be the primary concern. Many people look to impact the world to make a name for themselves, while others hope to make a fortune. I have found the greatest reward is seeing the impact one's care for others makes on the lives of those in need. Giving someone hope is a richness beyond measure. Seeing someone's gratitude for your help is more than enough acclaim. I hope to impact the world by healing others and easing their lives so that more people can enjoy a life without chronic disease or pain.

Living boldly was something Maggie encompassed in her life, and a big part of what we have in common. Like Maggie, I have no family support. I am a first-generation college student living very far from my family. I am working hard to pursue a degree in medicine, but also want to include scientific research in my career to advance the treatment and prevention of thyroid disorders. It is one of my dreams to earn a Ph.D. and become one of the most respected voices in thyroid disorder research. Outside of academic achievement, Maggie and I share a similar sense of adventure. I traveled across the globe while in high school without family and hiked the Alps between Germany and Austria. For the last ten years, I have been an avid runner and logged over two dozen half marathons, three full marathons, and one ultra-marathon. I have skydived and traveled to several states in the U.S. for races. In the last three years, I have added sailing to my hobbies and frequently compete as the only woman on my sailing team. It is a horrible tragedy that someone like Maggie, with so much life to live, was unable to get the years they deserve. Though she was only on Earth for 43 years, her life was filled with more experiences than some achieve in a lifetime. Like Maggie, I make the most of my time here, especially after losing my thyroid in 2019. Facing such a health scare reminds me to never take a day for granted. My medical journey began with a simple doctor visit. I felt as though something was wrong. The fatigue was overwhelming. I had trouble staying awake and was gaining weight despite barely eating. Debating with the primary care physician led nowhere as he recommended "diet and exercise". Clearly, he thought he knew better, but I knew it was something more. Years of his "diet and exercise" went nowhere until a neck injury revealed a large tumor that had taken over half of my thyroid. Years of debating with doctors about the conflicting evidence had given the nodules in my thyroid enough time to grow and overtake the healthy tissue. Early symptoms I felt were not evident in labs that showed function as "low, but within normal range." It is my hope to develop research to improve diagnotic detection so people with thyroid disorder can catch it before it is too late. I also hope to research possible causes in the rapid growth of thyroid disorder incidence. Like Maggie, I hope to make a difference. I have the brains, the fire within, and the courage to do the hard things. Like Maggie, I left family behind to pursue my dreams. I know if I am selected, Maggie would be proud to see a fellow academic with a zest for life reaching for the stars and touching so many other lives along the way.

I dream of helping people as a physician assistant and making a difference in people's lives. Going to college is especially challenging when you are a first generation student. Your parents don't know where to begin to help you in applying. It's even harder when you're a first generation, non-traditional student because you are in it on your own. There is no financial assistance from parents and I have had to rely on student loans and scholarships to finance my education. That challenge becomes more complicated when you have children to care for and still need to work outside of a full-time class schedule to make ends meet. In order to reach my goals, I have taken on a schedule daunting to many other college students. Despite being a second year student, I have reached junior standing by accomplishing 40 credit hours in my first year and plan to finish my four year undergraduate degree in three years in order to save money on tuition. Additionally, when I am not working at my local pizza restaurant, I volunteer at a local clinic to gain service hours for my graduate application. I also have a very small start up business as a promotional products company and manage quotes and orders as needed throughout the week. In additional to all this, I have community service hours required each semester for one of my scholarships. There are many hardships and challenges that come with going to college. While the financial burden is the largest obstacle, the amount of time needed to juggle all these elements is often the most challenging. While one can always make more money, you cannot make more time. We are alotted only so many days in our life and have to manage where we spend that time because, unlike money, you can't get those minutes and hours back. Finding time to get everything done and maintain my Scholar status on campus has been one of the toughest undertakings I have ever experienced. As I go through my undergrad education, I am preparing mentally for the bigger challenge that lies ahead. The two-year Physician Assistant graduate program is an intense curriculum with tough competition, as cohorts are only 35 students. I have an extrordinary challenge to make it into my preferred graduate school and then during those two intense years will not be able to work outside the classroom and have to find a way to finance both the cost of education as well as a place to live and food to eat during those two years. As hard as I am working now, I have a goal to save up enough to make it through those two years and come out the other side as a PA.

There are few words to explain how volunteering after a natural disaster touches your heart. The devastation caused by hurricanes and floods destroys lifetimes and family memories. There was a time when I thought donating to charities was all the help needed from me, but seeing families suffer in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida while waiting on insurance companies to do something showed me another side of giving. As families sat amid the devastation, not knowing where to start while waiting for their insurance companies to return their desperate calls, their homes and possessions began to mold and decay. One such lady in her seventies, living alone, didn't know what to do. My boyfriend and I rented a storage unit for her and quickly began sorting through the damage to salvage anything of hers that could be saved. After two weeks of salvage and debris removal, we filled that storage unit and saved many things that would have otherwise been lost to the mold. Seeing her grateful tears of joy with each saved heirloom and photo album was evidence that volunteering made a bigger impact - if even for just one person. As I look to begin my third year of school, I am reminded of the desperate financial position I am in. I work part-time while going to school full-time because I have to help pay for an apartment and utilities. While most college students can stay in dorms, I am in a position where I am helping my boyfriend support his four children. As such, dorm living would not suffice. The added expense of helping care for four children has stretched me to the limits of my credit and I find myself unable to afford school, despite being an "A" student on the President's List every semester. This scholarship would help ease the financial burden so I may continue to maintain academic excellence without the added strain of finances. My fall semester has eighteen credit hours scheduled and filling in twenty hours per week at work will be an enormous strain on my availability to complete assignments. Every bit of financial aid helps to ensure rent is paid and the lights stay on while I am free to focus on my education. I have a goal of entering a graduate program immediately after achieving my bachelor's, so I may become a Physician Assistant. In doing so, I hope to help even more people. They say "what goes around, comes around" and that karma will come back to those that deserve it. While I do not have any expectations of karma paying me back for the volunteering I have done (because I believe we are paid back in so many intangible way through our kind acts), I do hope that there are others out there in a position to help me in the same selfless way I help others.

I remember the first bike I ever owned. The Rainbow Brite detailing and banana seat made me believe that it was the fastest bike in town. I remember spending a day riding it and counting 100 times around the circled end of the driveway. It felt effortless with the wind in my hair and the mild summer sun warming my skin as I pedaled away on my trusty steed. Those childhood days, before the creation of Internet and social media, were filled with activity outside, most of which involved my bicycle. As I grew older, and busier with school and work, and eventually relationships, internet, and social media, a bicycle became an afterthought. It wasn't until I became interested in running that the bike re-entered my life. I quickly learned the importance of crosstraining, and cycling was my savior in on my non-running days as well as during injury recovery. As I grew into an avid race participant, I began to adventure into the rhelm of multi-course events, such as the duathlon and triathlon. My bicycle became an instumental part of my fitness and as the hilly courses sprawled before me, I found myself once again feeling the familiar warmth of the sun and wind of my childhood. Channeling that childhood spirit into my cycling make every mile effortless and meditative. Four years ago, a dear friend, and fellow local athlete was enjoying his training ride in town, in much the same meditative state as I found during my rides, when he was stuck by an SUV from behind. The woman who hit him had been looking down at her phone and never saw him. After many weeks in the hospital and months of rehabilitation, my friend regained the ability to walk. On the one year anniversary of his accident, he was on a bike again. Our local racing community cheered him on two years after his accident as he once again competed in a local race. The love and support within the cycling community had friends and competitors alike cheering his first finish in over two years in a celebration of triumph over tragedy. There is a magic in the cycling world where you connect to that child that once wondered over their first bicycle without training wheels. We purify our thoughts and emotions with the sweat of a hard workout. We travel through time as the wind kisses our cheeks on warm summer rides, reminding us of childhood summers riding our bikes with our friends or siblings. There is healing in the ride and a spirit of community that connects cycling strangers like family. Let us never be too old to hop on our bike and find that child we were once again.

I dream of helping people as a physician assistant and making a difference in people's lives. Going to college is especially challenging when you are a first generation student. Your parents don't know where to begin to help you in applying. It's even harder when you're a first generation, non-traditional student because you are in it on your own. There is no financial assistance from parents and I have had to rely on student loans and scholarships to finance my education. That challenge becomes more complicated when you have children to care for and still need to work outside of a full-time class schedule to make ends meet. In order to reach my goals, I have taken on a schedule daunting to many other college students. Despite being a second year student, I have reached junior standing by accomplishing 40 credit hours in my first year and plan to finish my four year undergraduate degree in three years in order to save money on tuition. Additionally, when I am not working at my local pizza restaurant, I volunteer at a local clinic to gain service hours for my graduate application. I also have a very small start up business as a promotional products company and manage quotes and orders as needed throughout the week. In additional to all this, I have community service hours required each semester for one of my scholarships. There are many hardships and challenges that come with going to college. While the financial burden is the largest obstacle, the amount of time needed to juggle all these elements is often the most challenging. While one can always make more money, you cannot make more time. We are alotted only so many days in our life and have to manage where we spend that time because, unlike money, you can't get those minutes and hours back. Finding time to get everything done and maintain my Scholar status on campus has been one of the toughest undertakings I have ever experienced. As I go through my undergrad education, I am preparing mentally for the bigger challenge that lies ahead. The two-year Physician Assistant graduate program is an intense curriculum with tough competition, as cohorts are only 35 students. I have an extrordinary challenge to make it into my preferred graduate school and then during those two intense years will not be able to work outside the classroom and have to find a way to finance both the cost of education as well as a place to live and food to eat during those two years. As hard as I am working now, I have a goal to save up enough to make it through those two years and come out the other side as a PA.

The pandemic was an epidemic of more than just a physical illness. The isolation and stress of a country in lockdown and panic generated many new cases of depression, anxiety, and PTSD as well as elevating the severity in those already aflicted with said disorders. Many of those unable or unwilling to seek counseling sought relief through self-medication in the form of alcohol or drugs, exponentially increasing the number of people in need of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatmeant. Despite this increased need for counselors and treatments, the pandemic forced therapists to treat their clients virtually through telemedicine. Telemedicine treatment evolved rapidly during the pandemic, in the form of phone sessions and video calls. Even though counselors rushed to find solutions to accommodate a world where in-person therapy was not feasible, online treatment centers were still in their infancy. Ideally, an online treatment center would offer around-the-clock availability for a client in crisis as well as scheduled one-on-one therapy sessions and group sessions, much like a traditional treatment center. People suffering from SUD have the most positive outcomes with a combination of therapies and simply offering one-on-one phone or video sessions does not accomplish that. Another concept that may help online treatment centers develop a full comprehensive treatment plan would be the ability for staff and clients to create an avatar for virtual visits. Not only could giving the client the ability to create a representation of how they see themselves offer insight to the therapist, but it could assist the client in feeling as though they were more involved in the treatment center itself by seeing themselves among other virtual people within the online setting. Relying on audio and visual therapy alone would not give clients as vibrant and emersive an experience. While an online treatment center could have a lot of potential, the reality is funding and money limit the creativity of such a solution. If money were no object, I would want to build a treatment center that offered both virtual and in-person options. Everyone does not have access to the internet, and some are incapable of navigating such advanced technological ideas, such as a virtual avatar and treatment centers. For these individuals, an in-person center would be beneficial so they could also receive service. Likewise, giving a client both live and online therapies would help bring both worlds together in a comprehensive treatment plan that might provide live family therapy with streaming video calls to long distance family interested in helping the SUD treatment process. Inpatient facilities in the live treatment would be another fantastic addition for those needing crisis managment and acute therapies, such as addiction intervention and detoxing services. This modern world has created a need for online therapy in addition to live counseling. The pandemic has forced many therapists to adapt to telemedicine and evolve in their treatment methods, however a modern treatment center would embrace both the old in-person options as well as online and virtual services. While costs and funding would be an obstacle to creating the ideal treatmeant center offering both, it would be a fantastic dream to bring to life that would benefit the most people suffering disorders.

No protagonist is more inspirational than someone who came from nothing and built themselves into something through trial and sacrifice. "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins is one such story that has motivated me to push past the mundane and become greater. In his book, he chronicals his escape from an abusive father and starting childhood with nothing. He and his mother moved to a town that wasn't entirely welcoming to African Americans. His foundation was set towards the bottom of society and no one, not even himself, expected him to aspire to much. As a young adult in a dead-end job, David was obese and unhappy. A single Navy Seal commercial sparked a fire inside his soul and set him on a path of pure will and grit in his pursuit of becoming a Seal, even though he didn't even know how to swim. Endless hours of training and restrictive dieting to get into the kind of shape necessary just to be considered built a mind of steel and helped him find the perservearance to keep pushing forward despite several injuries that booted him from Seal training on more than one occasion. Most people would give up after being discharged from Hell Week the first time, but David went through that infamous training three times in a single year. Without spoiling the book for those who have yet to read it, Goggins faced several similar trials in his life with the same tenacity and mental fortitude that would leave any reader inspired to completely transform themselves. At the time I read this book I was working on developing the mental discipline to enter college while helping raise four children, working part time, and keeping up with my fitness. Reading about everything he went through not only put my own doubts into perspective, it ensured me that I could achieve my dream of getting my degree while accomplishing so much more. David, like me, grew up in Indiana and several of the places he mentioned were familiar to me. It was a special kindred that allowed me to step into his shoes on each page and share in his pains and triumphs. David, like me, had an early unhealthy relationship with food and fought hard to transform himself into something fantastically unrecognizable. David, like me, was not a natural athlete and worked hard to become an endurance runner. It is hard not to think, "if he can do it, so can I." "Can't Hurt Me" inspired me to take on as much as I could. In my first year as an undergraduate, I completed 40 credit hours and am on trajectory to finish a four year degree in three. His no-pity attitude towards his challenges inspired me to do the same when it came to zero excuses for getting the work done. His words echo in my head when I wake in the morning and put on my running shoes, and his voice is the one yelling in the back of my head when I want to quit. Thanks to Goggins, I push myself to be the best version of myself.

Juggling a healthy lifestyle with a hectic school schedule, part time job, and helping with my boyfriend's four children is a real challenge. I am cramming a four year undergrad degree into three years with heavy class schedules, but campus is a half mile away, so I use that as a reason to ride my bike or walk to class. In addition, I run the perimeter of the campus four days a week when I first wake up. After my run, or first thing in the morning on my non-running days, I take our two dogs for a long walk. We also have a fitness center at our apartment that is open 24 hours a day and a pool that is available year round for swimming laps. Outside of physical activities at home, I enjoy kayaking and sailing, but also compete in area races in order to keep myself motivated with a new event or challenge. While I've lost count of the number of 5k events I have run, I know my half marathons are nearing 30, full marathons are three, and only one 50k ultra-marathon. These events are not only a physical workout for me, but they give me a mental break from the school work and a strong sense of accomplishment that helps me get my head back in the game for studying. Battling thyroid disease was a major obstacle that helped me focus on the importance of nutrition. With gluten intolerance and an inflammatory response to sugars, I learned that my body felt at its best with a low carbohydrate diet. While I occasionally still enjoy some carbs, like potatoes and oatmeal, my diet focuses more on quality protein and fats, such as nuts and avocados. I stopped drinking sodas over ten years ago, but enjoy a bulletproof coffee in the morning and water the remainder of the day. On heavy cardio days, I add an electrolyte drink and BCAAs to help muscle recovery, but my daily companion is my vacuum-insulated half gallon water bottle. Maintaining the balance is the key to getting it all in. It's easy to avoid the junk food when you are used to eating a certain way, and by getting my workout in right after waking up, I set myself up for success the rest of the day by starting my mindset off right.

They say turning forty means that you are becoming "over the hill." For me, it was the beginning of a new life. After filing for divorce and being plunged into a pandemic, I saw my youngest child graduate and leave home, then lost my job because of the industry-wide impact the pandemic had on in-person marketing. In eight short months, my life had been completely turned upside down and I found myself questioning what I really wanted in life. Before I had become a mother, I had dreamed of becoming a doctor and saving lives. I wanted to help people and life circumstances had led me down a twenty year detour that had completely deviated from the dreams I once entertained. Over those last twenty years I also endured a medical battle to treat thyroid issues. In my twenties I was told I was pre-diabetic and despite many hypothyroid symptoms, my doctor only advised that my TSH was "low, but within normal range." After a decade of chronic fatigue, hair loss, weight gain, and feeling cold even in the middle of summer, I finally had an answer during a trip to the emergency room for a neck injury. A golf ball-sized tumor had destroyed half my thyroid and my body had barely any thyroid hormone being produced. After loads of research and finding support groups online, I found it was likely something that could have been treated years earlier if my physican at the time had listened more. A close PA friend of mine recommended becoming a Physician Assistant. He advised that it was a Masters degree and as a PA I would be able to treat patients and help people. He loved his job and talked about helping patients. His advice was the driving inspiration I needed and I jumped back into school. It became my goal to complete the six year Masters path in five and I have been off to a great start in my first year as a full time student. I completed 34 credits during the first year and six more over the summer. Despite the challenges of a heavy courseload while working and helping raise four children, I find my drive increasing exponentially. While the previous three paragraphs seem so disconnected, they really are not. Sometimes one thing or another might not be enough to prompt you into a decision that will change your life. For me, it took all of it to motivate me to change my career after 15 years in advertising to retrace all the way back to what I wanted to do when I was in high school and first had those dreams of college ahead of me. It took years of fighting with doctors to get the right treatment for my thyroid to figure out what specialty I want to focus my future career on, and it took the advice of a friend to convince me I was not too old for college and career change. Without all of those things, I am not completely sure where I would be, but thanks to them I am on the fast track to helping people heal.

My journey as a non-traditional student began as a culmination of events in 2020. I found my life completely transformed that year as my twenty year marriage ended, my youngest child graduated and moved away, and I lost my job amid covid-related challenges affecting the industry. My adult life was completely turned on its head and I found myself in a form of identity crisis, trying to figure out who I really was. Many years ago, I had dreamed of helping people through healing and this sudden upheaval was the perfect time to reclaim those dreams. On the urging from a friend, who is a physician assistant, I decided to enroll on a course to become a PA, with the goal of achieving the six year degree in five years. My rush to get to the next stage of my life is based on my dream of helping people. I have a passion within the world of thyroid disorders and want to not only treat patients, but further research on the causes of thyroid nodules and what, if any, correlation there is between thyroid disorder, vitamin deficiencies, and hormone imbalances. In my years as a hypothyroid patient and member of several patient advocacy and support groups I have seen a common issue with patients who are frustrated that doctors are only addressing lab numbers and ignoring patient symptoms. As medical professionals, empathy and caring should be a top priority alongside healing, and what I was hearing and experiencing myself was patients being stonewalled and unheard when it came to a treatment plan that they could put their trust in. As a person who has spent the last twenty years getting to a doctor who would listen and finding the right treatment plan for me, I have a special passion for those who feel just as frustrated and hopeless that they will ever feel normal again. I want to use my education and gift of critical thinking to bring empathy back into medicine. As a physician assistant I will have the ability to treat patients and discuss with doctors ideas regarding thyroid treatment. I plan to conduct several medical research projects to try and unearth the cause behind the jump in thyroid disorders in the past fifty years and hopefully discover means for prevention, treatment, or even reversal. I am driven to succeed in this degree in order to make a difference for thousands of lives.

Managing a full-time student schedule can be challenging, but taking on even more credit hours, a job, running a business, parenting, and hobbies really teaches you how to prioritize and organize time. As a full time non-traditional college student, I am condensing a six year masters degree into a five year plan while helping my partner raise his four children. There are times when I must put homework aside in order to prepare meals, do laundry, buy groceries, or help with their homework. In addition to the challenges of raising children and school, I started a business in 2020. There are times when I must answer phone calls, create estimates, generate purchase orders and organize sales in order to address client issues. In addition to owning a business, I also work part time elsewhere four days a week. Juggling income sources with school means knowing which duties are the most time sensitive and need prioritizing. The hardest part is finding ways to still enjoy my hobbies and participate in campus extracurriculars. Last semester I joined a club on campus and plan to join more after moving within five minutes of campus. In addition, I enjoy extracurricular activities, like sailing and running. I am a member of a racing crew on two different yacht classes as the only woman on the team and we participate in races year-round. I am also an avid runner and member of a local running club that meets weekly, and I participate in local races, from 5k to half marathon. While it seems like an overwhelming list of things to balance, I find the best solution is to identify what is most important in your goals. For me, returning to school to get a new career and advanced degree is a top priority and, aside from family obligations, school work gets the primary focus in scheduling. Following shortly after education, revenue is needed in order to pay for school and the costs of living so I prioritize the duties of owning a business yet maintain a strict limit on my available hours at the part time job. For sailing and running, my event calendar is usually established months in advance, so I can have my work schedule revolve around those dates while making sure I work ahead on school work, if needed, in order to accommodate my hobbies. At the bottom of the prioritization are campus clubs and events, as attending meetings is not mandatory and many of the events are geared more for the traditional undergrad student and not someone my age. I am certain age has a lot to do with how I manage and prioritize all the serious items ahead of recreation, but when you are trying to fit six years of education into five, the true goal is the finish line. I have an ultimate goal of a work/life balance that will allow a bigger sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, as long as I can keep juggling for the next four years.

It's easy to feel overshadowed in the STEM field, when men seem to dominate. It's harder still to feel like an outcast or on the fringes on campus. Taking up space often seems like you are just filling an area as a mass of nothing in particular, overlooking and underwhelming. I would prefer to think of "taking up space" as a more proactive approach to making a name for yourself in a field where you would often be overshadowed by the masses instead of just taking up mass. While race and sexual orientation have received a lot of highlight over the last couple decades, with special scholarships and reserved places in college applications, non-traditional students are oft overlooked as a minority. We don't fit in with our peers on campus, feel out of place at social events, and fall short of qualifying for many scholarships. We are on the fringe of the minorities, yet for many non-traditional students the desire to succeed within our studies outweighs the feelings of just sinking into the background to make it through unnoticed. As a STEM non-traditional student I find that not only am I battling the odds of being a female in a male-dominant major, but I am also surrounded by students a generation apart. My classmates are the same age as my own children, which definitely makes me feel out of place and awkward. I am also a first generation student, which adds to the pressure as I want to succeed beyond where my parents left their education while encouraging my own children to pursue a college degree by example. I want to leave an indelible footprint not only within my family, but on campus, in within my field. I want to conduct groundbreaking research and take medical science to new heights. More than "taking up space" in a classroom or yearbook, I want to take up space in history as someone who made a difference in her field and ignited the passion in others who thought it might be too late for them to follow their career dreams. I want to inspire other women who may have felt intimidated by the idea of going to college in their midlife or worried that they would be out of place in a STEM field. When they wonder "if" they should or "if" they could do it, I want to be that image "taking up space" and removing their doubt.

Pain is something few people embrace, yet almost everyone has experienced some form of pain in their lifetime. My favorite book, Can't Hurt Me, by David Goggins, is one of the most inspirational stories of pain I've ever experienced. Goggins tells his story of coming from an abusive father, facing racial tensions, and overcoming the shackles of obesity and addiction to food in order to chase a dream. In an inhuman show of strength, he endures hell week in the Navy Seals not once, but three times. His harrowing tale of grit talks about the physical, mental, and emotional toughness he found within himself in order to become something more than his backstory. Goggins transitions from Navy Seal to ultra marathon runner, embracing an entirely new level of mental toughness and pain as he competes and wins hundred mile races. Can't Hurt Me was at times heart-wrenching and at other times, inspiring. As someone who also embraces the pain of endurance running, I felt a special connection as he told stories of training in Indiana on some of the same trails I have run. His book was so well written and packed more adventure and pain than ten people should endure, yet his lesson about growing from and embracing the pain is a great reminder that we are forged from our trials, not from the things that come easily. One of the humbling things came at the end of the book when Goggins had a weighty section thanking the multitudes of people that helped him learn along the way as well as make his book a reality. I have never before seen such a hardened individual with so much warm gratitude for those that have touched his life. From front to back, Can't Hurt Me is amazing.

I think we feel a certain harmony when we are on the right path to the true meaning of life. There's an inner passion that drives us and a chord that seems to sing when we achieve a sense of fulfillment. I don't think there is any one correct meaning of life. Everyone is different. We have different goals, different dreams, and different talents; but I think when our actions and thoughts align with these things, we are making achievements towards the meaning of our own lives. In essence, we should think of it in reverse. Instead of trying to find out the "big why", we should instead live a life of meaning. For example, I find true joy in helping others. Whether it is giving a homeless man a few dollars or a meal, or helping care for a sick relative, there is a satisfaction for me in living a life of service. For some, what might be meaningful to them is success or fame. Their goals are different, but they are also capable of taking actions that lead to that feeling of fulfillment in bringing some meaning to their lives.

I went to a very competitive public high school, graduating in the top 10% of my large class of 350 while earning college credit in AP classes. I excelled in Anatomy, Biology, Etymology, and Shakespeare and enjoyed learning. After graduation, life took a detour and I found my college plans derailed as I began to raise a family. I had dreams of helping people and the rigors of a pre-med college plan while raising a child, seemed insurmountable. At the time, I gave up my dreams of a college education and chose to be responsible for my choices and be a mother first. While raising my children, I decided to pursue academic excellence any way I could. In my promotional product industry, two organizations offered education credits and certification plans that lead to an equivalent of Bachelors and Masters. With the prospect of gaining an education while working in my career, I dove into the program and was among the first in the industry to receive the Masters designation, with 175 credits in the program. I contributed to industry print publications and continued to accrue credits during annual tradeshows where education was offered. It felt good to continue learning, but I wanted more. After only seven years in the industry, I decided to enroll in online classes and work towards a business degree to boost my career goals even further. I spent my days working as a promotional marketing expert and my evenings juggling the jobs of motherhood, such as preparing dinner and helping the kids with their homework, while fitting in a full time college schedule at Western Governors University online. It was a grueling schedule, but I was determined to make it work. During the year and a half at WGU, I excelled in my classes while maintaining a 50 hour work week, but life once again got in the way. We moved across the country and I found myself in a much more demanding job that forced me to withdraw from the school. 2020 was a year no one will forget, and for me it was much more than the pandemic. It was the year my youngest graduated high school, and the year my marriage ended. By August, the pandemic also took its toll on my career. Promotional marketing has a heavy reliance on in-person events and 80-90% of the business was gone while the virus kept markets shuttered. I found myself in an unprecedented position and really began to question my life choices. I loved helping people, yet found myself in a marketing and sales position that I didn't always enjoy. With the pressures of motherhood in the rearview mirror, I began to feel drawn back to my original passion in healthcare. With the encouragement of friends, I enrolled at Nicholls State University full time to pursue the dream I had shelved decades ago. It was finally my time to shine, and despite walking around campus with students my daughter's age, I feel at home in the classes. I want to finish that goal I had as a teen and work with the sick. I dream of treating patients and know that despite the delay of two decades, it is never too late to follow your passion and chase your dream.

I chose raising my son over going to pre-med. I once dreamed of being a surgeon, but the rigorous academic plan that involved that path was very challenging for a single mother. Instead, I chose to accept my responsibility and raise my child. I ended up meeting someone and getting married. We had a daughter together, and I put my dreams of college away to focus on my children. While raising them, I went to school online while working full time and earned business certifications in my field, but my original dreams of health care were always in the back of my mind. Now that both of my children have graduated high school, neither of them desire the college experience that I once dreamed of. Despite my disappointment, I accepted their decision and focused on living my life once again. I enrolled in college to finally pursue a degree in the medical field and hope to show my own children that it is never too late. My path towards becoming a Physician Assistant will allow me to have a career in which I can support myself comfortably and hopefully inspire them to pursue a career and degree that would do the same for them.

My drive comes from living beyond the scope of being "just". I am not "just" a mother. I am not "just" a housewife. I am not "just" a daughter. My mother never went to college and sometimes worked two jobs just to make ends meet. She and my dad were divorced when I was in high school and watching her struggle without his help made me want to succeed beyond that life. I spent twenty years being married to someone I thought would support my dreams of college and success, but the truth was revealed when I became the breadwinner for a short time and he became resentful. He, like my father, left and in leaving put me in a very difficult place of trying to support myself and my daughter. In the struggle of that aftermath, I saw my mother in myself and the cycle that was being created and I realized I needed to reconnect with my dreams of a college degree and future in medicine so that I could succeed in supporting myself and leave my daughter with an example to inspire her. I am a first generation college student and a mother, and a former housewife, and a daughter. I am a college student, an entrepreneur, and an employee. I am a motivator, an inspiration, and a guide. I will never be "just" any one thing. "Just" is limiting and my passion for my education and the career that awaits beyond it is limitless. I will succeed and surpass expectation - "just" watch me.

Sometimes our motivation is easy to spot. It could be a mentor, an life experience, or a goal that drives you to accomplish tasks in life. The fuel that drives me has no one source as I have so many things pushing me to succeed. Whether it is the goal to one day treat people with medicine, or to lead by example to my children, there is a drive to leave a legacy. My quest for a healthy life into old age and to avoid the diabetes that afflicted my grandmother fuel me to pursue my running, my thirst for adventure fuels my experience in yacht racing, and experience in living through financially uncertain times drives me budget, live a thrifty lifestyle, and focus on a career path that will afford a life where I am not living paycheck to paycheck. There are so many irons in the fire stoking my dreams and goals, but that is what life is all about. We are not just one dimensional and our goals and motivations shouldn't be narrow either, which is why my fuel is my family, my career goals, my hobbies, and my dreams.

There are so many meaningful things that can be included on a person's bucket list. For instance, one of my top items is to graduate and become a Physician Assistant. I am a first generation student and this accomplishment is one goal I am looking forward to achieving. I've also included some amazing goals, such as visiting Europe, skydiving, learning to sail, running a marathon, scuba diving, and visiting the Maldives. Out of those I have been to Germany as an exchange student, skydived in Florida, and completed three marathons all before learning to sail before the onset of the pandemic. As I complete more bucket list dreams, I grow the list with even more ideas of what I want to do with my life. While I have yet to scuba dive or visit the Maldives, I plan to use those as a way to celebrate my graduation. In addition, I want to one day own my own sailboat and sail across the gulf to Key West. I would love to learn to fly and own my own power paraglider to float peacefully above the world below, and hike at least a portion of the Appellation Trail. There is so much life I want to pack into my remaining years as I feel like I wasted too much of my life being lazy and watching the world pass me by. My bucket list is to ensure I don't miss another great opportunity to relish this life and the wondrous adventures in this world.

Confidence is more than simply believing in yourself. It is the faith that you will endure, the hope of success, and the resolution of willpower. Truly living with confidence is investing in the belief that you will persevere in any endeavor you set your mind to while having faith that you will have the ability to accomplish said task. When I was younger, I had ample amounts of false confidence. I believed I was smart and that I would go far in life, but I lacked the drive to put the work towards accomplishing the goal. This is why I say confidence is more than just believing one can. As I've grown older, I have set my mind to tasks, some of which seemed insurmountable at times, but with true confidence in myself and my determination I was able to endure and succeed. I've also learned that confidence comes with knowledge and expertise. As I have accomplished more in life, I have become more confident in my abilities. For example, it is a gigantic undertaking to run a marathon and even the most confident novice would have great difficulty completing the task without experience (practice) and knowledge (how to dress and fuel for the race). That false confidence could easily be dismantled once the reality of how difficult the task is set in and muscles started to ache. On the other hand, when one regularly trains by running and building strength, and when they educate themselves on proper running attire and fuel sources during a race, the confidence that is built is enforced with the experience and knowledge that get the runner to the finish line. This is how I finished my first marathon and how I plan to succeed in my college career with confidence.

1. I deserve this scholarship because I managed to eat jello with a fork. 2. Academically I hope to remember which seat I sit in for each class, and I guess the same can be said for my career goals as well. I would hate to show up to work and sit in the boss's seat. 3. There was a huge obstacle while I was delivering pizzas yesterday. A large tire-destroying pothole in the road ahead of me was sure to eat my relatively-new tire. Fortunately, I spotted it in enough time to swerve and avoid said obstacle. *These answers were meant as satire.

I want to help improve the understanding of thyroid disfunction for future patients. There are several thyroid disorders, but many have links to other deficiencies such as B12, iron, and magnesium. It is hard to ignore or dismiss the correlation as coincidence, and I want to dig deeper in analyzing the explosive growth of thyroid disease in modern countries. Since the advent of fluoridated public water systems and the carbohydrate and sugar-laden food pyramid invention, the rate of metabolic disorder and thyroid disfunction have blossomed exponentially. I believe there may be one or more underlying connections that could lead to explaining the surge in patients suffering from one or both conditions. I was diagnosed several years ago with metabolic syndrome and labeled as "pre-diabetic". Years of medication for diabetes led to no improvement of symptoms or lab tests. The doctor ignored thyroid tests which indicated my results at the low margin of "within normal" range. It took a neck injury to reveal a golf ball-sized tumor that had already destroyed half my thyroid to prove years of symptoms complaints were for naught. I believe there are others out there with similar experiences, where doctors ignored the patient and only acknowledged what numbers on lab results indicated, and I want to change that. It is my goal to thoroughly research possible causes and correlations that could lead to these disorders and help advocate for these patients that have been complaining about symptoms without adequate treatment. As a member of multiple thyroid patient groups on social media, it is hard to ignore the multitude of people who feel dismissed by their healthcare providers. There are so many that feel like they are losing their minds because their doctors only say their labs are "normal" and ignore the patient symptoms.

Patients should feel like they can trust their healthcare professionals, but many times that isn't the case. I was diagnosed as "pre-diabetic" when I was in my twenties. I was constantly tired, gaining weight, losing hair, and feeling like there was something wrong with me. Numerous trips to the doctor pointed to metabolic syndrome, which led to years of taking metformin and quarterly liver panel blood tests. My "pre-diabetes" was not due to lifestyle, but an underlying thyroid issue caused by an autoimmune disorder. My lab numbers were "within normal" but on the bottom end of the scale. They were ignored by doctors, who simply told me to "diet and exercise more." Years of chronic fatigue and weight gain went unacknowledged while my family physician simply increased my dose of metformin. It wasn't until five years of diabetic treatment that a trip to an emergency room following a neck injury revealed a golf ball-sized mass on my thyroid. Further tests showed half of my thyroid as non-functioning and for the first time in half a decade I felt like all my complaints were justified. After undergoing so many years of misdiagnosis, I lost my thyroid and started taking thyroid hormone and almost instantly my insulin resistance was gone. I cannot grow a new thyroid or get one transplanted, so I want to make it my mission to help others who might have a similar misdiagnosis. My chronic thyroid autoimmune disorder led to diabetic symptoms, and had it been caught early enough I might have been able to save some of that essential organ. I want to become a physician assistant specializing in endocrinology to help patients who might fall into a similar circumstance. In my case, the diabetic symptoms were "red flags" from my thyroid signaling distress, yet doctors only listened to lab results instead of to the patient's symptoms. I think many people in the health care field often ignore what the patient is saying and focus their attention solely on the numbers. I want to make a difference in patient care and treat people by addressing symptoms as well as lab results. Sometimes "within normal" range isn't optimal for people and symptoms persist. Sometimes lab results aren't so obvious about the true diagnosis and instead they point to underlying conditions that could be causing the signs that healthcare professionals can actually see. I was fortunate to reverse my diabetes by rooting out the underlying issue, but my grandmother was not as lucky. By the time she was insulin-dependent type II diabetic, her thyroid was barely functional and her diet choices did not help her condition. I want to work with patients beyond clinical diagnosis. Had my grandmother worked intimately with the health professional to find more nutritious ways to enjoy her favorite foods she might have been able to live a more independent life. My daughter (19) already has the autoimmune thyroid diagnosis, thankfully due to my establishment of the family history. She is already learning to manage the immune response through proper diet and low dose thyroid hormone medication. I feel becoming a physician assistant and pursuing further scientific research in that endocrinology field may help many people suffering with diabetes and possibly an underlying thyroid autoimmune disorder.