I was born and raised in Potomac Falls, Virginia. My parents still live in the same house I was born in. I am the oldest of seven kids, and my youngest brother is 11. They are my best friends. I had a good childhood, which mostly consisted of playing sports, specifically basketball. By the end of the eighth grade, I was nearly 6'2". I was also overweight as a teenager, but I still made my high school varsity basketball team as a freshman because of my height and abilities. I had the skills, but because I was overweight, I didn't get very many minutes on the court because I did not have a basketball player’s body.

In the summer of my junior year of high school, I put in a lot of work because I really wanted to play college basketball. Every day of that summer, I put in about six hours of practice. I lost quite a bit of weight and significantly improved my performance. Colleges even sought me out to play basketball, including a university in Virginia. I went there for a year to play basketball, but I didn't mesh well with my coach and teammates. I realized at that time that I was not meant to be a college athlete. I had played a lot of basketball that first year, but my grades had severely suffered. After that year, I ended up quitting the team and decided to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That summer, I started working three jobs to save up enough money so that I could leave in the next six months. When I returned from my mission, my dad was trying to start his own business, and my mom started working, so I had to help at home a lot more.

After my first college experience, I was sure college was not for me. I didn't think that I was smart enough. However, I had learned some good planning skills on my mission that I thought could help me study, so I enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). I ended up doing well. I liked my teachers and even got to play some basketball. But as my time at NOVA started to end, I wanted to find another school that cared about its students as NOVA did. I wanted to go somewhere near Utah, but I never felt like BYU was the answer, so I started to look at UVU. I knew I wanted to get out of Virginia and try to be on my own. Reading UVU's mission statement and seeing how they invested in and cared about each of their students helped me know that UVU was the place I was looking for — so I picked up my life in Virginia and drove out to Utah without even touring UVU.

Before coming to UVU, I had worked in physical therapy, and while I did like it, it wasn't what I truly loved. With my friend's encouragement, I started to do more shadowing and observations, and I realized that I loved more of the medical route. It was at this point that I started thinking about switching to pre-med. That decision changed my outlook and my trajectory, especially since as a pre-med student you must be involved in so many things such as community service, research, volunteering, and leadership. Had this change not happened, I wouldn't have had the same rewarding experiences at UVU.

My second year is when things started to take off for me. I worked hard to get myself out there and find opportunities at UVU. I was able to get into research with a teacher who was doing work on the human microbiome. I also applied to be a residential community leader at UVU, which got me free housing and connected me to so many resources on campus. From there, I was able to volunteer as the UVU Special Olympics basketball coach. Those kids have become my heart and soul. They're so awesome, and I loved coaching them.

As I started getting involved, doors opened for me. I got a part-time job at UVUSA as a secretary, where I met a lot of students. I was also accepted into the honors program. The honors program is great because you can make honors contracts, which let you work closely with your professors. This helped my relationships with professors, which led to more opportunities.

In my junior year, I was able to work as a foundation ambassador, which allowed me to connect with some amazing people. The foundation board helps raise money that goes toward scholarships and new buildings. Their donations are essential in creating more opportunities for students like me. As a foundation ambassador, I attended awesome events like the Scholarship Ball, where I met incredible people who love UVU. I was also fortunate to participate in the LEAD program and the Center for Social Impact.

I currently serve as a student director for the Excellence and Innovation Initiative, and recruiting students interested in hands-on, experiential learning has been the coolest thing ever. I've learned how to effectively use design thinking when facing a problem, asking questions like, "Why are we fixing this? Who are we fixing it for? What are we doing and how are we going to do it?" has been eye-opening for me.

Being at UVU has ultimately led to research opportunities, including the Excellence and Innovation Initiative, which have opened my eyes to the potential that we have to offer students a better learning experience.

This spring, I will apply to medical school and hopefully start in fall 2022. A huge reason for getting involved with the innovation initiative is my desire to create new medical technologies and figure out new ways to save and improve lives. In terms of medical specialties, I'm really interested in plastic surgery in a hospital setting, where I could help reconstruct body parts that have been damaged in horrific accidents. Dermatology is also a field that I am considering. The skin is such an amazing and unique organ system. It's so versatile, and it's amazing what our skin does and how it protects us.

UVU has changed my life in more ways than I could have imagined, but in ways that I am so grateful for. It has brought me an immense amount of opportunities that I never knew existed. Being here helped me feel and know that I was smart and that I could accomplish hard things. UVU has changed my view of higher education. I honestly think that a lot of my previous experiences and hardships were to bring me to UVU so that I could grow in ways I never would have anywhere else. I am a Wolverine for life!