Hello! My name is Morgan Gillard. At the time of writing this, I am a senior at East Ridge High School in Woodbury. Next year I plan on attending the University of St. Thomas (roll toms!) right here in St. Paul where I plan to pursue Physical Therapy and compete on their swim team. I was captain of my high school’s swim team and also a member of our state 400 freestyle relay that got second place and achieved all-American consideration times (we almost won but fell just short by 0.03 seconds). If you came up to me 2 years ago and told me I would be a state runner up I would have thought it was impossible, but the power of brotherhood and supportive communities have shown me that when we come together as a whole, we can overcome any odds. High school athletics have inspired and shaped me to be the best version of myself possible and to be the best leader and role model I could be for the younger people on our team before graduation. But what does any of this have to do with enriching the lives of others? Well, simply put, my end goal is to help people who need medical services to live their best life with as much drive and dedication as helping out my teammates in a relay. Even though I won’t be able to enrich the lives of others nearly as much as high school athletics do, I will still do my best to try. With my dream of becoming a Physical Therapist, I dream to help the community become as pain-free as possible post-injury and let them continue working towards their goals so they can achieve whatever they put their mind to. Though I want to help our communities here in Minnesota and give back to the people who have helped shape me, I have been given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go on a medical mission trip to help underprivileged children in need of medical care in Honduras this summer through Summit Orthopedics. I’m hoping I can help share my passion for helping others while down there and help the physicians perform their job as efficiently as possible, I’m also hoping to learn a lot about conditions I may be faced with in the future and how to best interact with the patients and help them so that someday I will be able to do so for people within our communities here in Minnesota. High school sports and being part of that community within your sport is something that nothing in the world can match. It has developed many characteristics, ambitions, and stories for me to tell, but it has also helped me discover that we as humans are stronger when we dedicate ourselves to helping others reach their goals and pursue their dreams. We as Minnesotan athletes have an obligation to give back to the communities that have supported us throughout our journey of life, whether we fulfill it by representing Minnesota at the highest level our sports have to offer or by simply finding ways to make our community a better place. I'm choosing to give back by working towards helping the community be as healthy as possible. How are you choosing to give back?

Hello! My name is Morgan Gillard, I am currently a senior in high school, captain of our swim team, and plan to pursue Physical Therapy in college while also competing on an NCAA Division 1 level for swimming. Academically, I was accepted into my college’s honors program so my academic goals are going to be to maintain a 3.9, preferably a 4.0 GPA to graduate from college with honors, set me up for grad school, and if the stars align, win the NCAA elite 90 award which recognizes the student-athlete with the highest GPA out of every athlete competing at the national championship meet. My professional goals are to eventually become a full-time doctor of physical therapy. As of right now, that is my highest professional goal because I feel like I would be most content working directly with patients to help get them happy and their muscles functioning as properly and painlessly as possible. Academically I already touched upon some of my goals, but I also plan on working towards a minor in Spanish while in college as I have a deep love for the language and want to be able to develop my proficiency so if needed I can help patients in need who speak Spanish, but do not know any English, obtain the best possible care and treatment I have to offer. I feel I am a good candidate for this scholarship because college and grad school will cost me an arm and a leg, but despite that I want to be able to graduate from college and grad school with as minimal debt as possible because one of my goals is to start investing as much money as possible, as soon as possible, to bring in extra income I can save for sending my children to college so they don’t have to pay for it themselves. Right now, I am planning on applying for scholarships to soften the blow of cost but I will most likely have to take student loans to cover the rest of the cost of college. I am not receiving an athletic scholarship for swimming but I was awarded a solid amount of merit so I am hoping that If I can also raise my grades while in college that I will get more merit and thus will have to pay less. I am totally in love with metal music. I discovered the genre of metal music completely by accident freshman year when I started listening to the Japanese band “Babymetal” after seeing an advertisement for their tour of America that had a stop in Minnesota (where I live). Since then I have branched out to listen to other metal bands. My favorites right now are Metallica, A Bullet for My Valentine, Rammstein, Hermetíca (basically Spanish Metallica) and of course Babymetal. The impact listening to metal has had on my life is huge. I have hit many roadblocks and challenges throughout high school, most notably in athletics but now keeping myself motivated to continue working towards my goal. The song “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica is probably the best motivator I have right now. Whenever I am feeling down, discouraged, or afraid I put my earbuds in and listen to it and imagine that it's a song about seeking and finding and achieving (hence the seek and destroy) all of the goals I set for myself. Even though that is not what Metallica is talking about in the song, it is still usually good enough to get me out of the slumps and refocused on whatever I am doing. I don’t think I would be the person I am today, with all the ambition I have, without the men with cool guitars, huge drums, and loud voices, rock on!