Thank you Mentors for the scholarship award and the laptop. Having my own laptop will allow me to complete my coursework at night and help with time management as I won’t have to spend hours in the tech lab. The scholarship support is so valuable to me as a first generation student. My primary passion right now is achieving my degree. I don’t only want an education for myself, but I want this for my mom, who played the role of mother and father in my life for me, and my sisters. Watching her work hard through the financial struggles we faced growing up helped me realize the importance of a good post-secondary education.

I want to be able to have something I can depend on and call mine, a college degree. I am a student at the University of Northern Iowa University majoring in Sports Psychology. Sports has always served as an outlet for me to work through the struggles and anger I faced as a young person. Through sports I learned about hard work, how to be accountable, work as a team, and leadership.

I know my love of sports and my passion to help others will help me relate to my future patients and motivate me to be the best Sports Psychologist I can be.

Mentoring has had such a major impact on my life that I hope to serve as a mentor at UNI through the TeamMates program in Waterloo, Iowa. I will not only continue with my TeamMates Post-secondary mentor who I’ve been matched with since middle school, but will look to surround myself with additional mentors like coaches, faculty, team members and upperclassmen. When I am a junior and senior I will reach out to underclassmen to serve as a peer mentor to them. As a professional, mentoring others will be an important part of my role in my community.

Words again can’t express how I feel about the support I’ve receiving from Mentors. You not only provided me assistance I needed, it shows you believe in my academic and professional dreams. Thank you.