My name is Wyatt Whetstone, and I am a high school senior. I am the oldest in a family of eight with five younger brothers. I have been homeschooled throughout my entire education and have greatly appreciated and enjoyed the opportunities it has provided. One of the opportunities I have had is to participate in the Trail Life program. It is a Christian organization that teaches boys how to be young men and provides them with valuable experiences in the outdoors, as well as life lessons. I recently aged out of the program after achieving the Freedom Award rank, the highest rank in the program, equivalent to the Eagle Scout. A large part of earning that rank was community service. I completed service hours through activities such as volunteering at my church's community events, assisting in volunteer positions at recycling centers, and even helping lead events in my own Trail Life troop. One of my more recent service projects was designing and constructing a replacement bridge on the nature trails of the Hannibal-LaGrange University campus. Aside from community service, I enjoy multiple other hobbies. I enjoy hiking, camping, running, exploring the woods around my house, and basically anything outdoors. I also have a great love of music. I play the piano and the guitar, and I am on the Sunday morning praise team and the Wednesday night youth worship team at my church. I also enjoy writing music, and I will spend time writing and recording music whenever I can. When I am not writing or playing music, I am likely listening to it. I enjoy a wide range of music from Christian worship and gospel, such as For King & Country and Matthew West, to Indie and pop artists like Twenty One Pilots and Half Alive. My favorite movie is probably The Princess Bride. My other largest hobby is likely reading. I always enjoy a good book, whether it is the fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings or the theology of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. My future academic and career goals begin with college. I will graduate from high school this spring and plan on beginning college this coming fall. I plan to attend Cedarville University to gain my bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. I will also strive to earn a minor in Bible in the process. Once I finish college, I hope to get a job in the field of aerospace engineering. Space, sky, flight, planes, and rockets have always fascinated me. I hope to play a part in the designing, building, and testing of planes and rockets. As the oldest of my brothers, I am the first to go through the college experience. It is a new experience, and I get to be the first to attempt to figure it out. That said, I do have a plan, and while all plans are subject to change, it is at least a place to start. The first part of my plan consists of applying for as many scholarships as possible. I have filled out the FAFSA and have received scholarships from Cedarville that cover just under half of the cost, but that still leaves me with over $25,000 left to pay for myself. Whatever costs I cannot cover with scholarships, I plan on making up for by working, partially during the school year but mainly during the summer. Any remaining costs I will be required to pay for with student loans, which is greatly undesirable, but a cost I am willing to accept and work to repay for the benefit of my career.

My name is Wyatt Whetstone. I remember a few years ago when I watched the astronauts fly the SpaceX Falcon to the ISS for the first time. Right then I thought about how cool it would be to be a part of the team that worked to make that possible. Since then I have continued to grow in my interest of aviation and aerospace. I enjoy keeping up with news on the latest developments of planes and rockets and thinking that one day I could be the one hiding in those discoveries. Aviation has fascinated me as long as I can remember. I fondly think back on the times I was able to tour flight and space museums as a kid. My love for aviation and aerospace has only grown since then. I still enjoy my tours of aviation and space museums, but now I appreciate even more the intricacies of the vehicles and the steps that have been taken to get to the point we are at today. As I study calculus and advanced physics this year I think about how the principals I am learning apply toy future job in the real world. Even though learning isn't always easy it is always worth the effort to work through whatever issue stands in the way. As for how I exemplify leadership qualities, that is something I have learned a lot more about in the recent past and still am learning about in the present. I participate in a program called Trail Life that is very similar to the Boy Scouts program. I have held a position of leadership each of my four years in the highschool program. Three of the four years I held the position of First Officer, the highest office for a youth in the program; and the other year I served as Second Officer. Through this experience I learned that leadership requires much work, but it also requires the ability to organize the work for other people to help complete. It also means taking response for the ultimate failure or success of an endeavor. I also recently earned the Freedom Award, the highest award in the program which is comparable to the Eagle Scout award. Through this process I learned more about how to lead, but also how to be let by those over me. In conclusion I have had an interest in aviation and aerospace as long as I can remember. I have enjoyed continuing to learn more as I grow and continue my education. As I have grown I have also learned what it means to be a leader and how I apply those concepts to my life.