They don’t call baseball ‘America’s Favorite Pastime’ for nothing. It’s a family tradition that brings people together through good and bad times. This couldn’t be any truer for my family. My parents have six children. I have one older sister and two older brothers and a younger brother and sister. We all play either baseball or softball. We have a sign that hangs on our front door during the spring that says, “If we aren’t home, check the ballfield”. For my family it isn’t just about playing a sport, it is truly a family tradition. My Grandpa Elmer loved baseball and spent years of his adult life playing men’s softball, so my dad and his family all grew up loving the game. Unfortunately, my Grandpa passed away from colon cancer before any of us kids were born. My parents have made sure that his four pillars have been instilled in each of us: faith, family, farming and baseball. My family lives on the family farm where my dad grew up. We raise beef cattle and egg-laying chickens. At a very early age, you start helping out on the farm and learning how to drive equipment. We harvest crops such as: soybeans, wheat and corn. We don’t farm enough to be considered full-time farmers, but just enough to keep us busy and teach us a solid work ethic. My Grandpa believed that God gave us land and animals to use for resources, so it was necessary to be grateful for all that he provided. Our parents teach us that the skills we have are gifts from above. The only way we can say thank you is to use them for good and not evil. Throughout life we go through many ups and many downs; no matter where we are in life, God is with us through it all. Our church, St. Mary Catholic Church, has an annual summer social. It is a huge 2-3 day celebration over Father’s Day weekend. There are several food vendors, kids games, bingo, and a men’s softball tournament. Every year my Grandpa was the organizer of the softball tournament. Men would come play in the tournament and bring their families to celebrate Father’s Day weekend. Once my grandpa died, several committee members told my Dad that he should take it over. So for the last 27 years, my Dad has continued where my Grandpa left off. And every year for as long as I can remember, my Dad, brothers and I would take care of the softball field and make sure it was ready for the annual summer social tournament. Some of my greatest memories are on that diamond, spraying weeds, raking dirt, retrieving homerun balls; these are memories that tie my brothers and I to our Grandpa even though we never had the chance to meet him. This is why baseball holds a special place in my heart, it’s literally a family tradition for my family that ties generations together.

I will be attending Bowling Green State University and majoring in middle childhood education. My goal is to become a junior high math teacher and a coach. I think it is important for a coach to learn about their athletes on the field or court but also in the classroom. When a student athlete knows that their coach is watching not only what they do on the court/field, but also in the classroom they put forth a greater effort. I hope to inspire my students to see their education as a priority. The effort you put into the classroom work should match the effort you put into the sport. A student athlete is a student first, the opportunity to play on a team comes as a bonus. My parents always said 'books before balls'. This meant if we wanted to participate in sports we had to get our academic work done as a priority. We were at school for academic purposes, the teams we played on were for extra-curricular purposes. I believe a teacher has the ability to play a very impactful role in the life of their students, if they take an interest and set an expectation. I have been a three-sport athlete throughout high school. I have had many coaches who have had a positive impact on my sports career. I also have had many teachers who have shown the desire to hold me accountable for my grades. They have challenged me to work hard to achieve to my highest level. I intend to approach my college education the same way I have my high school education. Be open to learning as much as I can and to find a mentor educator that can be there to support me as a transition from being a student to becoming an educator. My life lesson my mom has always told me was to live life with no regrets. The challenge was to work hard and put in 100% effort in whatever I was doing. That way, no matter the outcome, I knew I had done my best and didn't have to live with regrets with the outcome. My hope is to be the kind of teacher where my students know I am invested in their future and their success. I want to show them that when you are part of a community, whether school, team, or village; each member needs to contribute for the community to be successful. If they challenge themselves to work to their fullest potential, they won't have the stress of living with regrets. It is okay to set a high expectation and experience some failure. Those failures allow us opportunities for growth and future success. My students will learn that it is okay to make mistakes. We will turn those into learning moments. My goal for each student is that they find a desire to change their highest potential.

I have chosen to enter the field of education. I am pursuing a degree in Middle Childhood Education specializing in Math. My goal is to be a Junior High Math Teacher and a coach at the varsity level. I chose this career choice because I felt this is where my passion is. I spent my first two years of high school taking College Credit Plus (CCP) engineering classes through Northwest State Community College as part of the Project Lead the Way curriculum. I enjoyed those classes and did well with them, but as I investigated what my life would look like as an engineer; it wasn’t what I felt passionate about. So, I started to think about what I wanted to achieve with my career choice. It led me to education and working with young people. I chose math because it is a subject I enjoy. It is tough, but rewarding when you grasp the concept. My goal is for kids to enjoy learning new math concepts and excited about the challenges and rewards math can provide. All kids learn at different levels and in different ways, I consider it my responsibility as an educator to find methods that will allow me to reach each student and give them the best opportunity to achieve. I want to make a positive impact on my students and help them realize that these first 18 years of their life, truly are just a stepping stone towards their future. Each level of their education journey leads into the next phase of their life. The more dedicated they are during these years, the more successful they can be over the course of their lifetime. The greatest legacy I could leave behind is that my students knew that I cared about them not just as a student but as a person and inspired them to work hard and achieve to their highest potential. This is exactly one of my main drives to become a teacher. Playing sports throughout my first 18 years of life, has had a huge impact on me. Sports have pushed me to challenge myself to see what all I am capable of. The coaches that I have worked with over the years are people that I admire, respect and look up to. My parents have always told my siblings and I that in order to play sports, we first have to maintain the best grades we are capable of. We were never allowed to slide through a class with just a passing grade. It was expected that we would give our education the same effort we gave to sports. I had several teachers who knew this and challenged me to perform to my highest level in their classes. Sometimes, I hated this. But I now hold a true value to these teachers for caring enough to push me to put forth my best effort. I want to be this kind of teacher to my students. I want to help kids see the benefits of pushing themselves hard to achieve in their academics and understanding that this will carry over into their work ethic in sports as well. I want my students to realize during their junior high years, how important their education is, so that they have a good foundation in place when they leave high school and head into either college, trade school or the workforce. I want to help them get to where they want to go, without having regrets. The greatest legacy I could leave behind is that my students knew that I cared about them not just as a student but as a person and inspired them to work hard and achieve to their highest potential. This is where this scholarship has the opportunity to help me achieve my goals. Goals that not only benefit me but also my students. Receiving this scholarship would mean that someone else believes in me and my desire to follow my heart. It also would mean that someone believes in the importance of having teachers that are passionate about their students. I don’t just want to teach my students, I want to connect with them. I want to build a connection that comes with a mutual respect. I want them to know that I believe in them and that if them are willing to work for something, they can achieve it. Receiving this scholarship allows me to use the next four years of college to work closely with professors and student mentors in the education lab to learn techniques and teaching styles that will allow me to form these type of connections with my students. My greatest fear right now is the amount of debt I will incur from obtaining my degree. I have already accepted a job while I am going to college to help pay for my tuition and expenses. But I do not want to make my job my priority. In order to be the best teacher I can be, my priority has to be focused on developing myself as an educator. Being the recipient of this scholarship allows me a firsthand experience on what it feels like to pay something forward for someone else's benefit. The person receiving the gesture believes that they are the one reaping the greatest benefit; but actually the real joy is bestowed on the giver. I have felt this in small ways over my lifetime, but I intend to be a person with a servant heart. I believe the way we treat each other has a ripple effect. As a role model for my students, this mentality is one characteristic I hope to instill in them as a teacher and a coach. It just takes one person to step out of their comfort zone and do something for someone else, not because they have to, but because they want to. Once that first step is taken, the ripple occurs. The only question becomes how far will the ripple go. I want my ripple to reach father than anything I ever imagined.

Math is challenging. I am 4th in the birth order of six kids. Being competitive is second nature when you have five siblings. So I have always loved the challenge that math provided, I also love the feeling when you realize you get a math concept that has been hard to achieve. Math is the one subject that requires you to understand one concept in order to move along to the next concept. The more you understand at one level, the easier it is to find success at the next level. Coming from a large family, I have seen firsthand how different each child can be. As a teacher, it is important to incorporate many different learning concepts to a class in order to reach all the students and the learning style that helps them achieve. This is exactly one of my main drives to become a teacher. Playing sports throughout my first 18 years of life, has had a huge impact on me. Sports have pushed me to challenge myself to see what all I am capable of. My parents have always told my siblings and I that in order to play sports, we first have to maintain the best grades we are capable of. We were never allowed to slide through a class with just a passing grade. It was expected that we would give our education the same effort we gave to sports. I had several teachers who knew this and challenged me to perform to my highest level in their classes. I hold a true value to these teachers for caring enough to push me to put forth my best effort. I want to be this kind of teacher to my students. I want to help kids see the benefits of pushing themselves hard to achieve in their academics and understanding that this will carry over into their work ethic in sports as well. I want my students to realize during their junior high years, how important their education is, so that they have a good foundation in place when they leave high school and head into either college, trade school or the workforce. I want to help them get to where they want to go, without having regrets and inspired them to work hard and achieve to their highest potential.

When you are a student going through grade school and then high school, your education seems like a lifetime. Everyone tells you that this is just a stepping stone towards the rest of your life, but for as long as you can remember, you have been going to school so it seems like its forever. At some point in high school, you start to realize what they mean by the stepping stone towards your future. You begin to realize that the efforts you have put into your high school years, have a big impact on the transition to your college years. Your decisions over the next three or four years will truly impact how you begin your life as an adult and will define how you start out on this new journey of adulthood. It is at this point, that we realize just what was meant by the stepping stone to the rest of your life advice from everyone over the past several years. It is also at this point that most people make some major life changes based on their past decisions. They either feel really good about the journey they have been on and set some life goals to obtain over the next few years or they feel really bad about where they are and commit to making better choices moving forward. I intend to me the kind of teacher that understands kids are kids, but as an adult in their life, it is my responsible to hold them accountable to achieve to their highest potential. This is exactly one of my main drives to become a teacher. Playing sports throughout my first 18 years of life, has had a huge impact on me. Sports have pushed me to challenge myself to see what all I am capable of. The coaches that I have worked with over the years are people that I admire, respect and look up to. My parents have always told my siblings and I that in order to play sports, we first have to maintain the best grades we are capable of. We were never allowed to slide through a class with just a passing grade. It was expected that we would give our education the same effort we gave to sports. I had several teachers who knew this and challenged me to perform to my highest level in their classes. Sometimes, I hated this. But I now hold a true value to these teachers for caring enough to push me to put forth my best effort. I want to be this kind of teacher to my students. I want to help kids see the benefits of pushing themselves hard to achieve in their academics and understanding that this will carry over into their work ethic in sports as well. I want my students to realize during their junior high years, how important their education is, so that they have a good foundation in place when they leave high school and head into either college, trade school or the workforce. I want to help them get to where they want to go, without having regrets and inspired them to work hard and achieve to their highest potential.

When you are a student going through grade school and then high school, your education seems like a lifetime. Everyone tells you that this is just a stepping stone towards the rest of your life, but for as long as you can remember, you have been going to school so it seems like its forever. At some point in high school, you start to realize what they mean by the stepping stone towards your future. You begin to realize that the efforts you have put into your high school years, have a big impact on the transition to your college years. Your decisions over the next three or four years will truly impact how you begin your life as an adult and will define how you start out on this new journey of adulthood. It is at this point, that we realize just what was meant by the stepping stone to the rest of your life advice from everyone over the past several years. It is also at this point that most people make some major life changes based on their past decisions. They either feel really good about the journey they have been on and set some life goals to obtain over the next few years or they feel really bad about where they are and commit to making better choices moving forward. I intend to me the kind of teacher that understands kids are kids, but as an adult in their life, it is my responsible to hold them accountable to achieve to their highest potential. This is exactly one of my main drives to become a teacher. Playing sports throughout my first 18 years of life, has had a huge impact on me. Sports have pushed me to challenge myself to see what all I am capable of. The coaches that I have worked with over the years are people that I admire, respect and look up to. My parents have always told my siblings and I that in order to play sports, we first have to maintain the best grades we are capable of. We were never allowed to slide through a class with just a passing grade. It was expected that we would give our education the same effort we gave to sports. I had several teachers who knew this and challenged me to perform to my highest level in their classes. Sometimes, I hated this. But I now hold a true value to these teachers for caring enough to push me to put forth my best effort. I want to be this kind of teacher to my students. I want to help kids see the benefits of pushing themselves hard to achieve in their academics and understanding that this will carry over into their work ethic in sports as well. I want my students to realize during their junior high years, how important their education is, so that they have a good foundation in place when they leave high school and head into either college, trade school or the workforce. I want to help them get to where they want to go, without having regrets and inspired them to work hard and achieve to their highest potential.

When you are a student going through grade school and then high school, your education seems like a lifetime. Everyone tells you that this is just a stepping stone towards the rest of your life, but for as long as you can remember, you have been going to school so it seems like its forever. At some point in high school, you start to realize what they mean by the stepping stone towards your future. You begin to realize that the efforts you have put into your high school years, have a big impact on the transition to your college years. Your decisions over the next three or four years will truly impact how you begin your life as an adult and will define how you start out on this new journey of adulthood. It is at this point, that we realize just what was meant by the stepping stone to the rest of your life advice from everyone over the past several years. It is also at this point that most people make some major life changes based on their past decisions. They either feel really good about the journey they have been on and set some life goals to obtain over the next few years or they feel really bad about where they are and commit to making better choices moving forward. I intend to me the kind of teacher that understands kids are kids, but as an adult in their life, it is my responsible to hold them accountable to achieve to their highest potential. This is exactly one of my main drives to become a teacher. Playing sports throughout my first 18 years of life, has had a huge impact on me. Sports have pushed me to challenge myself to see what all I am capable of. The coaches that I have worked with over the years are people that I admire, respect and look up to. My parents have always told my siblings and I that in order to play sports, we first have to maintain the best grades we are capable of. We were never allowed to slide through a class with just a passing grade. It was expected that we would give our education the same effort we gave to sports. I had several teachers who knew this and challenged me to perform to my highest level in their classes. Sometimes, I hated this. But I now hold a true value to these teachers for caring enough to push me to put forth my best effort. I want to be this kind of teacher to my students. I want to help kids see the benefits of pushing themselves hard to achieve in their academics and understanding that this will carry over into their work ethic in sports as well. I want my students to realize during their junior high years, how important their education is, so that they have a good foundation in place when they leave high school and head into either college, trade school or the workforce. I want to help them get to where they want to go, without having regrets and inspired them to work hard and achieve to their highest potential.

When you are a student going through grade school and then high school, your education seems like a lifetime. Everyone tells you that this is just a stepping stone towards the rest of your life, but for as long as you can remember, you have been going to school so it seems like its forever. At some point in high school, you start to realize what they mean by the stepping stone towards your future. You begin to realize that the efforts you have put into your high school years, have a big impact on the transition to your college years. Your decisions over the next three or four years will truly impact how you begin your life as an adult and will define how you start out on this new journey of adulthood. It is at this point, that we realize just what was meant by the stepping stone to the rest of your life advice from everyone over the past several years. It is also at this point that most people make some major life changes based on their past decisions. They either feel really good about the journey they have been on and set some life goals to obtain over the next few years or they feel really bad about where they are and commit to making better choices moving forward. I intend to me the kind of teacher that understands kids are kids, but as an adult in their life, it is my responsible to hold them accountable to achieve to their highest potential. This is exactly one of my main drives to become a teacher. Playing sports throughout my first 18 years of life, has had a huge impact on me. Sports have pushed me to challenge myself to see what all I am capable of. The coaches that I have worked with over the years are people that I admire, respect and look up to. My parents have always told my siblings and I that in order to play sports, we first have to maintain the best grades we are capable of. We were never allowed to slide through a class with just a passing grade. It was expected that we would give our education the same effort we gave to sports. I had several teachers who knew this and challenged me to perform to my highest level in their classes. Sometimes, I hated this. But I now hold a true value to these teachers for caring enough to push me to put forth my best effort. I want to be this kind of teacher to my students. I want to help kids see the benefits of pushing themselves hard to achieve in their academics and understanding that this will carry over into their work ethic in sports as well. I want my students to realize during their junior high years, how important their education is, so that they have a good foundation in place when they leave high school and head into either college, trade school or the workforce. I want to help them get to where they want to go, without having regrets and inspired them to work hard and achieve to their highest potential.

When you are a student your education seems like a lifetime. Everyone tells you that this is just a stepping stone, but for as long as you can remember, you have been going to school so it seems like forever. At some point in high school, you start to realize what they mean by the stepping stone towards your future. You begin to realize that the efforts you have put into your high school years, have a big impact on the transition to your college years. Your decisions over the next three or four years will truly impact how you begin your life as an adult. It is at this point, that we realize just what was meant by the stepping stone to the rest of your life advice from everyone over the past several years. It is also at this point that most people make some major life changes based on their past decisions. They either feel really good about the journey they have been on and set some life goals to obtain over the next few years or they feel really bad about where they are and commit to making better choices moving forward. I intend to me the kind of teacher that understands kids are kids, but as an adult in their life, it is my responsible to hold them accountable to achieve to their highest potential. This is exactly one of my main drives to become a teacher. Playing sports throughout my first 18 years of life, has had a huge impact on me. Sports have pushed me to challenge myself to see what all I am capable of. The coaches that I have worked with over the years are people that I admire, respect and look up to. My parents have always told my siblings and I that in order to play sports, we first have to maintain the best grades we are capable of. We were never allowed to slide through a class with just a passing grade. It was expected that we would give our education the same effort we gave to sports. I had several teachers who knew this and challenged me to perform to my highest level in their classes. Sometimes, I hated this. But I now hold a true value to these teachers for caring enough to push me to put forth my best effort. I want to help kids see the benefits of pushing themselves hard to achieve in their academics and understanding that this will carry over into their work ethic in sports as well. I want my students to realize during their junior high years, how important their education is, so that they have a good foundation in place when they leave high school and head into either college, trade school or the workforce. I want to help them get to where they want to go, without having regrets. After graduation, I will be attending Bowling Green State University and majoring in Middle Childhood Education. My intention is to be a junior high math teacher and a coach. I want to make a positive impact on my students and help them realize that these first 18 years of their life, truly are just a stepping stone towards their future. The more dedicated they are during these years, the more successful they can be over the course of their lifetime. The greatest legacy I could leave behind is that my students knew that I cared about them not just as a student but as a person and inspired them to work hard and achieve to their highest potential.

As a toddler my parents noticed I had a speech impediment, through the state funded Help Me Grow program I was enrolled in speech therapy at the age of three. I received speech services through preschool and into elementary school. During my primary education years, I had a breakthrough thanks to my speech pathologist and was able to overcome my speech impediment and discontinue speech therapy. To this day, I still have some speech issues, however, they do not interfere in my ability to communicate freely. Although, I am a shy and quiet person; many times I have wondered if this is due to my inability to speak clearly when I was younger so I chose to not speak much at all. It was always easier to allow others to do the talking. As a child, you do not realize that things are different. As you age, you realize that what you experienced was not the norm and you begin to wonder the affect your disability had on your development process. The people in my life allowed me to feel completely normal and pushed me to learn and grow at a normal rate. This is exactly why I am pursuing a degree in Middle Childhood Education focusing on math and science. Many students have something that holds them back from believing in their ability to excel. I want to challenge all students to be confident in who they are and challenge themselves to pursue to their highest potential. It's okay if we aren't all exactly the same. But it is not okay to hold yourself back because of your own fear of failure. The greatest gift we can give to ourselves is to be open to making mistakes and willing to learn from them. Math and science are two of the hardest subjects to conquer in school. They are also two of the most exciting subjects to conquer. My goal is to make the classroom an engaging place to learn. When you finally understand a math concept it becomes fun to see how far you can go before the next challenge. This is the excitement I intend to evoke in my students. There is so much correlation in math & science. If students can see how intertwined they are, they will be more willing to learn and focus on what they are working on. Hands on learning allowed me to retain information and remain engaged, this concept is something I will focus on with my students so they are excited to come into my classroom and learn each and every day. Their dedication to their studies during their middle school years will guide them as they enter high school, college and/or the workforce. I will just be a person who planted a seed within them to encourage them to push themselves and challenge themselves towards their future goals. It just takes one person to believe you can achieve something, for me it was my speech pathologist. This scholarship will allow me the opportunity to focus on being engaged in the college of education and working with mentor students and professors to find ways to better assist my students. The more I am engaged during college, the better prepared I will be for the classroom setting. My greatest fear is the amount of college debt I will incur in obtaining my education degree. Teachers do not make the highest starting salary, so the college debt weighs heavy for me. This scholarship assists with allowing my focus to not be on the debt, but the degree.