My name is Nathan White. I am currently a freshman at Tennessee Wesleyan University, a small college in Athens, Tennessee. I currently have a 3.6 GPA after the Fall Semester and looking forward to what the Spring Semester will bring for me. I am currently majoring in Sports Management for my studies. I play on the Men’s Lacrosse team for TWU as a Long Stick Middie. I am the oldest of 2 boys who live with my parents in Spring Hill, TN. My mom is a Special Education teacher who works with students who have autism. My dad is an architectural intern for a firm in downtown Nashville. My brother, who is 14, is a freshman in high school this year. We don’t have any other family that lives near us but have very supportive grandparents, aunts, and uncles all around the US. My parents and brother have supported my efforts to do well in school and athletics! I attended school where my mother taught until I was in 8th grade. We moved during the summer before my 9th grade year so that made starting high school a bit hard. I was starting a new school, without knowing anyone. I wasn’t the best student, having ADHD and anxiety issues that affected my daily school life. I was able to find some other peers in the neighborhood and that helped to ease my first days in the new school. These peers would become my lifelong friends as we moved through high school. I knew that I needed to focus on my studies but I also got involved in sports to help with my ADHD and anxiety issues. Some of my friends decided to start a lacrosse team and that was where my love for the game started. I helped to get a small club team started at my school and worked to build that number into a larger team as we moved through our high school years. Lacrosse kept me on track in school because I wanted to play and needed to keep my grades up to do so. Lacrosse taught me some great lifelong skills to take into college, such as teamwork, confidence, leadership skills, and the need to support my community. As I moved into the summer before my senior year, my plans for the future were all set to go to a trade school in the area and become a car mechanic. A coach from Tennessee Wesleyan University ran a summer camp for Lacrosse that summer and it changed the trajectory of my future. Coach Parker was very interested in helping me to become successful student and athlete. He showed me how community, faith, and family were important as I pursued my future! I made the decision that I would change my path and go to college instead of trade school. Coach Parker believed in me and said that Tennessee Wesleyan University would be a place that I could thrive both academically and athletically. We made plans to visit and I fell in love with the small campus atmosphere. Our team does many community service projects as well as helps out with the school athletics in the area. I plan to finish out my degree at TWU and find a job in Sports Management. I hope to find a job that I can still give back to the community as I have been in high school and college. I want to be able to help others like those who have helped me to get to where I am today.

At a young age, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I wasn't reading in first grade and my math skills were below grade level too. It was very difficult for me to do any learning for an extended period, without blurting out and getting up and moving. Once I started on some medication, I was finally able to start learning, sit for longer periods, and try to catch up with my peers. It was hard for me to interact with peers because I would get so overstimulated doing activities with them that I would act crazy, which wasn't normal to them. I feel like things finally settled down in Middle School, my learning caught up, and I was able to monitor my behavior. I was able to self-advocate for myself with teachers and parents as I got older and could tell them how I was managing my ADHD. I was putting myself into sports to help with the overstimulation piece of my world. In high school, I seemed to be able to handle my inattentiveness with strategies I learned over the years. I was also able to use sports to help with my hyperactivity. High school was a very positive experience for me! I learned how to self-advocate for the things that I need to be successful in school and life. I also learned how to manage my ADHD so that I can make better grades and stay focused in class while having positive interactions with a great group of friends, who see me for who I am, and not my disability. I currently attend Tennessee Wesleyan University and plan to major in either Business or Sports Management. I haven't decided on degree paths just yet. With either degree, I hope to be able to own my own business or at least partner with someone who understands my need to be supportive of our community. I want to be able to help others, whether that be by providing a service or giving people jobs to help their own families. No matter what degree I leave with in college, I hope that I can be someone who gives back to others. I feel like I had a village of teachers, parents, and friends to support me through school and with my disability and I hope that I can help others, in some way make a difference in their lives. I feel that I have learned a great deal about how sports impacted my life and helped me through some tough times with my ADHD. I feel like by pursuing a degree in Sports Management, I can be that support for someone else. Sports is certainly a passion of mine. This passion will hopefully lead me into a career that I love and that I can then contribute back to society. My disability has certainly impacted my life but I plan to put all the things that I have learned about myself into my college degree and future career to be successful in life!

In the future, I see myself with a family and a job with a major sports team, helping out my community by volunteering my time and resources to help others.

At a young age, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I wasn't reading in first grade and my math skills were below grade level too. It was very difficult for me to do any learning for an extended period, without blurting out and getting up and moving. Once I started on some medication, I was finally able to start learning, sit for longer periods, and try to catch up with my peers. It was hard for me to interact with peers because I would get so overstimulated doing activities with them that I would act crazy, which wasn't normal to them. I feel like things finally settled down in Middle School, my learning caught up, and I was able to monitor my behavior. I was able to self-advocate for myself with teachers and parents as I got older and could really tell them how I was managing my ADHD. I was putting myself into sports to help with the overstimulation piece of my world. In high school, I seemed to be able to handle my inattentiveness with strategies I learned over the years. I was also able to use sports to help with my hyperactivity. High school has been a very positive experience for me! I have learned how to self-advocate for the things that I need to be successful in school and life. I have also learned how to manage my ADHD so that I can make better grades and stay focused in class while having positive interactions with a great group of friends, who see me for who I am, and not my disability. I am going to attend Tennessee Wesleyan University and plan to major in either Business or Sports Management. I haven't decided on degree paths just yet. With either degree, I hope to be able to own my own business or at least partner with someone who understands my need to be supportive of our community. I want to be able to help others, whether that be by providing a service or giving people jobs to help their own families. No matter what degree I leave with in college, I hope that I can be someone who gives back to others. I feel like I had a village of teachers, parents, and friends to support me through school and with my disability and I hope that I can help others, in some way make a difference in their lives. I feel that I have learned a great deal about how sports impacted my life and helped me through some tough times with my ADHD. I feel like by pursuing a degree in Sports Management, I can be that support for someone else. Sports is certainly a passion of mine. This passion will hopefully lead me into a career that I love and that I can then contribute back to society. My disability has certainly impacted my life but I plan to put all the things that I have learned about myself into my college degree and future career to be successful in life!

At a young age, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I wasn't reading in first grade and my math skills were below grade level too. It was very difficult for me to do any learning for an extended period, without blurting out and getting up and moving. Once I started on some medication, I was finally able to start learning, sit for longer periods, and try to catch up with my peers. It was hard for me to interact with peers because I would get so overstimulated doing activities with them that I would act crazy, which wasn't normal to them. I feel like things finally settled down in Middle School, my learning caught up, and I was able to monitor my behavior. I was able to self-advocate for myself with teachers and parents as I got older and could really tell them how I was managing my ADHD. I was putting myself into sports to help with the overstimulation piece of my world. In high school, I seemed to be able to handle my inattentiveness with strategies I learned over the years. I was also able to use sports to help with my hyperactivity. High school has been a very positive experience for me! I have learned how to self-advocate for the things that I need to be successful in school and life. I have also learned how to manage my ADHD so that I can make better grades and stay focused in class while having positive interactions with a great group of friends, who see me for who I am, and not my disability. I am going to attend Tennessee Wesleyan University and plan to major in either Business or Sports Management. I haven't decided on degree paths just yet. With either degree, I hope to be able to own my own business or at least partner with someone who understands my need to be supportive of our community. I want to be able to help others, whether that be by providing a service or giving people jobs to help their own families. No matter what degree I leave with in college, I hope that I can be someone who gives back to others. I feel like I had a village of teachers, parents, and friends to support me through school and with my disability and I hope that I can help others, in some way make a difference in their lives. I feel that I have learned a great deal about how sports impacted my life and helped me through some tough times with my ADHD. I feel like by pursuing a degree in Sports Management, I can be that support for someone else. Sports is certainly a passion of mine. This passion will hopefully lead me into a career that I love and that I can then contribute back to society. My disability has certainly impacted my life but I plan to put all the things that I have learned about myself into my college degree and future career to be successful in life!

Nine months ago, I had plans to go to trade school to become a car mechanic because I didn't know what I wanted to do in my future career. I am very interested in cars and felt that maybe that was my career path because it was such a high-interest topic for me. My Dad always says, "you should pick a job that you want to do for the next 40 years". I wasn't too keen on spending four years in school again so I thought that the trade school route was in my future. It just seemed right to head to trade school, get school paid for, and move into my job. Last summer, I had a coach reach out to me about playing lacrosse in college. I hadn't thought that this was even a possibility so my thought process about college started to shift a bit after that email. Sitting down with my family, we delved into what college could bring for my future. I started to get a bit more excited about the thought of college and playing sports. But then the next big question arose, what would I study when I went on to college? I spent some time thinking about my interests, my hobbies, and what I spend all my time doing so that I could figure out what I would want to pursue in college. I did some research into the colleges that might interest me, where I could play lacrosse, and what avenues for education might be at the schools. After researching, I decided that I would start looking at a Business path or a Sports Management path as I was pursuing college admissions and playing lacrosse. The reason for pursuing a Business degree is twofold in my head. I could get that Business degree and then go back to trade school to be a mechanic and can work toward managing my own shop. I could still hit on the interest of my "car world" but just take a little longer path to run my own business instead of just working for someone else. I have to find something that will be enjoyable to do long term and going this Business route could open those doors for running my own shop to work on one of my favorite things, cars. The other career path that I am planning to look at is something in Sports Management. I have spent my whole life playing a sport so it only seems natural that I would move into a career path that involves sports. I am not sure exactly the path within Sports Management I am going to explore but just being in the trenches around sports would be awesome! I think that my knowledge of many different sports and my love for a good game would set me on a fulfilling career path. I believe that either of these career paths would provide me with a fulfilling career and future. I feel like I could give back to the community in both of these career paths, by supporting community events, and groups through my job. I would feel comfortable in either of these paths and that will make it easy to get out of bed in the morning to go to work because it is something that I love so much!

My name is Nathan White and I have been a lacrosse player for three years but what a difference lacrosse has made in my life. Living in Tennessee, lacrosse has not been a very visible sport, although it is certainly growing. The sport of lacrosse has changed the trajectory of my path after I leave high school in the Spring of 2023, and I look forward to moving into my college years. Lacrosse became my life three years ago when my friend from New York asked if I wanted to help start the High School lacrosse team at my school. With the help of parents and a school advisor, we were able to recruit players, fundraise, and begin our club team. I knew that it would take a lot of time, energy, and commitment to be a founding member of this team. Each player had to commit to making this team successful and we have done that. We will be starting our third season this Spring! I believed that to start this team we had to become good teammates. We had to work together to reach goals that we set as a team, on and off the field. I learned to be a good teammate, helping others at practice, listening to others who thought they had better ways of doing things, and realizing that we had to work together in positive ways to build that team culture. I needed to be willing to learn the game, make mistakes, and help others to better ourselves as a collective group. I couldn't go out there as an individual and be successful, we needed to learn about each other and with each other to build a cohesive group. It was a tough start but we felt really good after our first season that we could build on what we did well and learn from our mistakes to go out even better the second year. I believe that my biggest growth area has been discipline on and off the field. Being on this team, I had to work to figure out how to be prepared for both school and sports. I needed to make routines for myself so that I could better myself on the field while still meeting the academic goals that I set for myself. I needed to learn when it was okay to "play" and when it was necessary to "work" on either school or sports skills. I learned that I must be early for sports events to mentally and physically prepare myself for the game or practice. I have used my leadership skills to try to help those new to the team learn how to be disciplined on and off the field as well. I am hoping that my newly honed skills of teamwork, commitment, and discipline will help me manage both sports and academics as I move into college. I believe that I have learned so many skills through sports that will help me to prepare for my future. I feel that I have grown as a leader, learned the importance of commitment, and become a servant to the community around me. I look forward to playing lacrosse at Tennessee Wesleyan and using these skills to help myself get my degree, be a great teammate, lend a hand in the community around me, and be ready to move into a career in the Sports field. I am unsure of where I would be today if I didn’t have the sports experiences that I had growing up in school. They each played an important role in who I am today.

My name is Nathan White and I have been a lacrosse player for only three years but what a difference lacrosse has made in my life. I have known about lacrosse for years as my father played lacrosse in Maryland. With us living in Tennessee, lacrosse has not been a very visible sport, although it is certainly growing. The sport of lacrosse has changed the trajectory of my path after I leave high school in the Spring of 2023, and I look forward to moving into my college years. Lacrosse became my life three years ago when my friend from New York asked if I wanted to help start the High School lacrosse team at my school. With the help of parents and a school advisor, we were able to recruit players, fundraise, and begin our club team. I knew that it would take a lot of time, energy, and commitment to be a founding member of this team. Each player had to commit to making this team successful and we have done that. We will be starting our third season this Spring! I believed that to start this team we had to become good teammates. We had to work together to reach goals that we set as a team, on and off the field. I learned to be a good teammate, helping others at practice, listening to others who thought they had better ways of doing things, and realizing that we had to work together in positive ways to build that team culture. I was only just learning the sport, although I had a lot of ice hockey experience to build from. I needed to be willing to learn the game, make mistakes, and help others to better ourselves as a collective group. I couldn't go out there as an individual and be successful, we needed to learn about each other and with each other to build a cohesive group. It was a tough start but we felt really good after our first season that we could build on what we did well and learn from our mistakes to go out even better the second year. We also did many team-building activities in the community to help both ourselves and the community. We worked at the Food Pantry and through our "The Well" Mobile Pantry to feed those in need in our community throughout the season. We had fun team activities so that we could get to know each other better. Knowing each other has helped us to work as a team on the field. I believe that my biggest growth area has been discipline on and off the field. Being on this team, I had to work to figure out how to be prepared for both school and sports. I needed to make routines for myself so that I could better myself on the field while still meeting the academic goals that I set for myself. I needed to learn when it was okay to "play" and when it was necessary to "work" on either school or sports skills. I have learned that I need to be early for sports events to mentally and physically prepare myself for the game or practice. I have used my leadership skills to try to help those new to the team learn how to be disciplined on and off the field as well. I am hoping that my newly honed skills of teamwork, commitment, and discipline will help me manage both sports and academics as I move into college. I will play lacrosse and study Sports Management as I move into college.

Just to give a little background, I have been involved in some type of sport my whole life. I started playing soccer when I was young, probably around age 5 and then moved on to hockey. I have played hockey since I was 6 years old and currently still play on my high school club team. I tried out basketball in middle school because I was tall but that didn't pan out too well. I started playing lacrosse in high school and that is now my choice of sport. Athletics have given me so much during my school-age years. My parents always said that I could do any sport, but if I signed up, I needed to finish the season, even if I hated it. It was important for me to learn that once I committed to something I needed to see it through. I feel that commitment is engrained in me now and I understand how important it is to follow through with what you say you are going to do. I had a lot of issues with both ADHD and anxiety as I was going through school. Sports gave me an outlet so that I could get some energy out before going home to sit down and complete homework. Sports also tired me out so that I could sleep better each night so I was ready for learning at school each day. I struggled when things were chaotic and the routines set within sports and then home helped me to stay calm and I didn't stress out as much because I knew the routine. Another way that athletics impacted me positively was that I learned how important being a good teammate was for the team and life. You need to be a good teammate, give positive praise to others, and work together well to problem-solve when things might not be going well with the team. I learned what it felt like to work together as a team to reach goals that we set, an important job skill. I learned great leadership skills while playing sports and this will help me in my future college career as well as my job. I wasn't the best leader at a young age but I helped to start our high school lacrosse team and had to come out as a leader to get this team off the ground. We needed leaders to push to get recruits, fundraise, and just show others the ropes once we got the team off the ground. I have become a leader on the team and make sure that things are getting done when necessary. This will certainly help me when I move into my future career because I don't want to be a follower! I want others to want to work with me so that we can move our team to reach the goals set by us! I am unsure of where I would be today if I didn't have the sports experiences that I had growing up in school. I hope that I continue to learn and grow as a person as I move into college to play lacrosse and get my degree in Sports Management.

If you had asked me six months ago about my future goals after high school, I would have told you a story different than today. I believed that I was going to be a car mechanic because I didn't think that I was college material. The sport of Lacrosse changed everything for me! Three years ago, my friends and I started our school lacrosse team at our high school. Lacrosse isn't very big in Tennessee yet but it certainly is growing. I knew about lacrosse from my father who played growing up in Maryland. When my friend from New York asked for my help in starting the team, I was all in! We did the leg work to recruit players, along with parents' help to fundraise, and our school advisor, to get our Club team started. Who knew that this would change the trajectory of my future. Being a part of this team from the ground up has built up my confidence, commitment, leadership skills, and all-around academic skills. I had to step out of my comfort zone to get players interested in joining the team. Walking out on the field with no experience in the sport was a little scary too. I loved it from that first day! I wanted to play all the time and found different teams to play with so that I could get as much practice and playing time as possible to better myself in the sport. The sport of lacrosse has created a work routine for me that helps me to stay focused on getting my schoolwork done well so that I have time to practice and play. You can't play without good grades; lacrosse has pushed me to do better in school. In July and August when those first college lacrosse coaches reached out, I started to believe in myself that maybe I could play lacrosse in college and get a degree instead of choosing a trade school. Schoolwork didn't seem as bad anymore since I had sports to keep me busy the rest of the day! This sport had impacted my future plans more than I ever thought. At this point, my college search began! My parents talked to me at length about the fact that school needed to come first and that sports would always take a back seat to get that degree. When thinking more and more about my college degree, I felt that a sports-related occupation was something that I could see myself doing for many years to come. I feel that sports have made me the person that I am today, and I can put forth those strengths in my upcoming occupation. I want to continue to improve my lacrosse game and be active in my college through volunteering, all while learning more about the management side of sports. I hope that once I get my degree in Sports Management I can be a part of a team that will provide the necessary pieces for a sports team's success while also supporting community sports or even high school sports, where I got my start. I want to be a person that is seen as a great teammate and that is committed to doing the best for his company. I never thought going out on a sports field would impact my future but I am sitting here today and that is just what happened! College here I come!