It seems like it was only yesterday when I arrived at Morrill Tower two years ago as an incoming college freshman.  Since then I have now graduated from the Dunn Sports and Wellness Scholars.  Since those days I have been able to obtain many opportunities that were in front of me that otherwise might not have been as easy to obtain.  Since my freshman year I have applied for my major, athletic training, an undergraduate research position at the Jameson Crane Sports Medicine Institute, and an athletic training internship with all 32 NFL teams.  I later heard news that I was accepted into my major, got the undergraduate research position, and an athletic training internship with the Houston Texans over the summer.  These are great opportunities that are not available to the normal freshmen and sophomore classes, but because of my hard work, dedication, and prior connections throughout Ohio State’s athletic training staff and sports medicine staff I have been able to make these possible for such a young person on their academic career.  With these demands that are generally given to the older students I have been required to grow as a person from where I was those first days that I walked on to campus.  These new positions required me to improve my leadership and time management skills before I started them to fill the roles that I was put into without the experience that the former people would have entering the position.  Before I arrived to Ohio State I went to a small high school where I was the FFA president.  Even though I was use to being in a leader position I have never been responsible for so much stuff that actually had an impact on the real world and not just the school.  These positions have groomed my leadership skills now where I feel comfortable being in charge in situations that truly have an effect on the people in this world.  Also, all of these new tasks have required me to develop time management skills that were not needed in high school because of the lack of difficulty to me.  Now I am able to balance a healthy schedule between athletic training hours, my undergraduate research position, and my normal class schedule.  These skills have all been developed and learned since my college career started and will truly define my future.

My sophomore year was very different when compared to my freshman year of college.  The biggest difference was that I am now in my major and am focusing on growing in my major now, whereas, last year I was focusing on just getting into my major and passing my knock out classes.  I also grew as a person outside of my college classes and in my research as a writer.  Since last year I have now become an author in a medical journal on two different articles and with another one coming in a few weeks.  Also, since I got into my major I have also been able to start my clinical experience with the men’s soccer team for the year.  During this time I have grown as a person due to the large amounts of responsibility that are required from us to learn, but also to have a role on the sports team.