I grew up in Greenfield, Indiana with my mother, father, and three siblings, two older and one younger. I am a first generation college student and the first of my siblings to go to college. I started off freshman year as exploratory because I hadn't quite decided what major I wanted. I knew I wanted to go to graduate school to become a pediatric occupational therapist but I didn't know what major yet. I soon realized that I wanted to declare exercise science.   

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From a young age I have enjoyed volunteering in my community. My mom would sign me and my younger brother up for volunteer opportunities at our local library. I really enjoyed helping people so I tried to make that a big part of my life. I joined school clubs and other organizations that offered a way for me to volunteer and help people. So from a young age I knew I would want a career that I could help people.

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One organization I volunteered for is called FUSE. I volunteered for their adaptive swim program. This program helped children with disabilities how to swim. I had done lots of volunteer work with kids and really enjoyed it so I knew that I would want to work with kids in the future. With this program I found my passion for working with kids that have disabilities.

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I owe a lot to the woman that runs this program. After I began thinking that I might want to do something like this program in the future I talked to her and she helped me explore my options. She gave me a list of careers she thought I might be interested in and I did some research on them. One that stuck out to me was pediatric occupational therapy. I had never even heard of that before talking to her and now that is what I plan to do for my career. She then connected me with an OT that she knows and I got the opportunity to ask her questions and shadow her to see for myself what the job would be like. I loved it and I am forever grateful for my mentor.