I appreciate the opportunity to apply for assistance for College. I grew up in a home with great turmoil and from the age of 6, I had to survive without either of my parents involvement. This created a lot of issues that I needed to learn to overcome. I struggled with focus and having any purpose in life and made one bad decision after another. A friend encouraged me to join Cross Country in 8th grade. This started to change the trajectory of my life. In grades 8-12, I found a lot of purpose in Cross Country, Wrestling and Track and Field. The team, disciplines, and personal interest from my coaches really changed my life. During my senior year, our team won the League, District and State Championship Cross Country races and I was a significant part of those team wins. These experiences and the influences of these caring coaches have given me a lot of confidence that I can achieve anything I am willing to work hard for and that I can reach my dream of becoming a History Teacher even though I have no parental support and have to shoulder the financial burden of college on my own. I have learned that when we serve those around us and when we work hard; we can accomplish so much more than we ever dreamed was possible. My greatest dream and goal now is to become a support team for kids like me. To help kids who are struggling learn that they are valuable. That the circumstances of their lives, no matter how difficult, can be overcome and that there are a lot of people who will help them through. Being willing to receive the help is a big part, too. When you are hurting so much as a kid and when those who you were supposed to trust the most have so deeply wounded you, it is hard to trust anyone and receive the help that is being offered. Once I got so low, that I knew I had to start receiving the help around me, that is when my life changed for the better. That is when I started to care about my grades, I started to think about my future and how I wanted to be prepared to provide stability for a family that I hope someday God will allow me to have and I started to realize how many people around me truly cared. I want to make them proud. I want to become a History teacher to help students know that each one is valuable and each one can achieve whatever they set their mind to do. I also want to coach and pass on the gifts that I have been given by my coaches. Thank you for your consideration in helping me reach my goals.

1. My school program and my IEP have inspired me and shown me that I can succeed and overcome even really difficult situations. I can't speak highly enough of the Special Education team at my school. They always believed in me. They were there, patiently helping and supporting me even when I was resistant to their help. Now as I have been visiting colleges, and Misericordia University in particular, I am finding that there is a lot of support to help me succeed with my IEP at the collegiate level. I will be taking advantage of Misericordia's Alternate Learning Program and I look forward to succeeding with the help of these great people who are pouring in time and resources to help people like me. 2. I received an IEP in 1st grade. My parents split up and both left me during the end of my kindergarten year. As you can imagine, this set me up for many difficulties in learning and even caring about my education. I struggled all the way through until the middle of my 10th grade year when a caring coach made a huge difference in my life. He helped me through some very dark times and gave me purpose, he shared the light of his faith with me, and he gave me confidence that I could overcome and succeed. As I reflect on my k-12 years, I now see how every step of the way, there were very caring and concerned people who worked with me above and beyond the norm to give me the assistance I needed. Yet through all of their efforts, it still took me coming to a point of recognizing that I have strength inside myself, given to me by God, that I can use to work hard, to accept the help of my teachers, coaches and Special Education counselors. People around me have been amazing in guiding my journey, but I had to want it. I had to work for it, too. My school community has really worked hard for my best. They have given me the learning support I needed, they have helped me stay in school when I wanted to quit, they encouraged me to participate in sports---which truly changed my life. My Cross Country coach took a special interest in me. He made me work hard, but in working hard, he believed in me and I had great success with my team. He was always teaching me to walk in wisdom. He wanted me to seek out caring adults for advice. He helped guide me to friendships that would encourage me to do what is right and good rather than the bad friends I had at that time that were tearing me down even further than I already was. The assistant coach was a Special Ed teacher and had a heart for kids like me. Together, they truly helped me overcome academically, emotionally, spiritually, and socially. I never thought I would say this, but I am so grateful for my IEP, for my caring teachers and counsellors, and for my coaches. To grow up in a world without parents, it is truly a blessing to have others in our community step into such caring roles and help guide me when I was so troubled and lost myself. This year, our Cross Country team won the State Championship race. I was a big part of that team win. It gave me a family. It gave me so much confidence. It helped me know that I can go pursue my dream of becoming a History Teacher and Cross Country coach. I am planning to run at college and one day I will teach History and help a new generations of kids who struggle just like I have and be a champion in their lives to help them succeed, too.

Thank you for the opportunity to read about Sean's life and laughter. As an athlete, I have had many funny situations that have created great memories. We had mud runs, runs in the snow, runs in the heat of summer.....these all somehow turn into funny situations when you are with your friends and teammates putting in the miles. One of my teammates is especially funny and finds humor in everything and that has made Cross Country such a fun time for all of us on the team. Probably the most memorable was surrounding our Cross Country State Championship win this year. We have a small team that is tightly bonded and worked really hard for each other. (Honestly, this team has made a huge difference in my own life, as I was taken away from my parents when I was only 6---but that's a whole different story and not a very funny one.) Our Cross Country coach was amazing. He not only made us work hard, get our sleep, eat right, and work together as a team, but he poured into all of our lives and truly cared about us. He is a prior military guy and pretty serious and strict. After overcoming so many obstacles and personal hurdles, we pulled out the Gold medal win at the State Championships. The school told us that they were going to have a reception for us back at our home school when we arrived after our 3 hour ride back home. It was awesome being on the bus. The firetrucks met us at the county line and escorted us to the school. We were all yelling out the windows and so pumped up.....but we were only yelling to cows and horses in the pastures because we live in a very rural area.....it was crazy. After having so much fun and arriving back at the school. We were met with silly string, lots of cheering, cake ,speeches,....just an amazing night. All of the sudden, our team leader gives us a quiet sign to head outside. The girls team asked coach to come outside for a minute, and we jumped out from behind the corner and dumped a 5 gallon bucket of ice water all over our coach. It was so funny to see this serious man jump, start laughing and grabbing us all in hugs. It was one of my most fun and funny and special moments this year. We were all laughing and loving each other, making memories that we will hold in our hearts forever.

I appreciate the opportunity to apply for assistance for College. I grew up in a home with great turmoil and from the age of 6, I had to survive without my parents involvement. This created a lot of issues that I needed to learn to overcome. I struggled with focus and having any purpose in life and made one bad decision after another. A friend encouraged me to join Cross Country in 8th grade. This started to change the trajectory of my life. In grades 8-12, I found a lot of purpose in Cross Country, Wrestling and Track and Field. The team, disciplines, and personal interest from my coaches really changed my life. During my senior year, our team won the League, District and State Championship Cross Country races and I was a significant part of those team wins. These experiences and the influences of these caring coaches have given me a lot of confidence that I can achieve anything I am willing to work hard for and that I can reach my dream of becoming a History Teacher even though I have no parental support and have to shoulder the financial burden of college on my own. I have learned that when we serve those around us and when we work hard; we can accomplish so much more than we ever dreamed was possible. As I became more serious about my running, my coach hired me for summer farm work. He invested in my in many ways that guided my choices and I didn't want to disappoint him. There was a lot of snowball effect that started to take place as I wanted to improve my grades in order to stay on the team. I wanted to stay out of the principal's office so that I wasn't restricted from participating in sports. I learned the hard way, that my choice of friends had great impact on my life. Because I didn't have parents guiding me, I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. I am so grateful for the good teachers and coaches that God put in my path who were willing to care about me as a person and not just as a student or athlete. They have truly changed my life. My dream is to become a teacher and coach to serve my students and athletes in the same way that my teachers and coaches served me. I want to help kids who need a hand up. I want to help make the world a safer and brighter place for my students. I want kids to know that no matter how hard things may be, there is always a way through and that you are never stuck. If you are willing to seek a little help, there are many people more than willing to be there for you and help you. I have had a passion for history. I have had some amazing history teachers in high school. They have helped shape the passion I have to become a high school history and citizenship teacher. I understand that knowledge of history is critical to forward growth. It builds bridges of heritage and human understanding. It guides us to better choices for the future. History is not just the study of events and chronologies, but it is the study of human courage, ingenuity, service, achievement....it is the study of people who used what they had and made a difference. Those people inspire us to live in ways that demonstrate those same qualities. At times history is a reminder of the decisions and choices that lead to great harm and that we don't want to emulate. But history is a great teacher. I want to make it come alive for future students. I want to share with them the passion of people who have made a difference. I want to be able to help my students understand where we came from and let that history guide us as we move forward. I have been accepted to run on a Cross Country and Track and Field team in college. I hope to continue to grow as an athlete and to one day be able to coach running sports at the high school level. Running has taught me so much about life. Athletics has so many parallels to the important things in life. And part of my dream is to be able to help young people grow and learn from athletics. I would appreciate any help you can give me as I embark on this journey. Thank you.