2022 Rosen & Ohr Scholarship Winner
We would like to extend our congratulations to Kaitlyn Stahl, the winner of the 2022 Rosen & Ohr Scholarship! To learn more about the Rosen & Ohr, P.A. Scholarship, click here.
On March thirteenth, 2014, I woke up believing it was just a normal day. I brushed my teeth, put my hair in a ponytail, and got dressed. I asked my mom if we could stop and get breakfast like we always do. After stopping and getting breakfast, we were on our way. Flashes of red and blue were up ahead, and someone noticed. That was the moment when disaster struck. My mother and I were in a car accident where a 99 year old lady hit us head-on. When she saw the lights, she became distracted and veered into our lane. My mom and I were both injured in the accident. Despite wearing seatbelts, my head impacted the side pillar of our Dodge Durango. This caused me to sustain a concussion and fracture in my skull. My mother had even more extensive injuries. She sustained several fractures on her spine, destroyed her left shoulder, and her left hip socket. She has had to have several surgeries and this has severely impacted her health not only physically, but also mentally as well. Before this accident, my mom worked a Monday through Friday job. This was helping my family bring in two paychecks, and stay afloat with our bills and expenses. My mom has not been able to work since the accident and lives in constant pain. I struggled with school after the accident and have had to learn to overcome the obstacles that the accident caused me.
One of the things that have made this accident tough on my family was the fact that the 99 year old lady that had hit us was a retired school teacher that had taught both my parents. Although they only had her as a substitute teacher, she was always the one who brought a smile to each child’s face. Sadly she had passed a few weeks later, and we never were given the chance to give our condolences to the family. The insurance companies drug everything through court and it took several years to even get them to cover our medical bills. Many of those bills were placed into collections, ruining my parent’s credit. My dad is a disabled police officer who drives a semi and is often gone for long periods. He does this to try to provide for our family. He works 70-80 hours a week, and he and my mom try to help me with my college expenses. With what little help they can give me, I still often struggle to come up with the money for books, tuition, and other expenses.
Before the accident, school was effortless for me. I received very good grades and even made the honor roll five years in a row. After the accident, I began to struggle with my education and my interaction with my classmates. I was diagnosed with severe PTSD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and acute stress disorder. I have learned to overcome a lot of the obstacles that were placed in my path. I still have to deal with these disorders, but I have learned that I can overcome almost anything. The one thing that has been hard to overcome is the financial difficulties that this accident has placed on my family. I have paid for my entire college experience with little to no help up to this point. Earning this scholarship would help to alleviate some of the stress that has been caused by these financial difficulties.
Something else that has been affected by the accident is my dancing career. I started dancing at age 3, and I still am dancing to this day. Because of the accident, I am not able to retain the information that I use to. It has made it harder to remember the intricate parts of being a technical dancer. I began losing confidence and stopped dancing for a few months. Thankfully, I started dancing again when I moved to a smaller school in rural Ottowa County Kansas. I joined the high school’s dance team, and became lieutenant my senior year.
I have never been someone to say that I deserve something. I believe that no one deserves the kindness and grace that we are given, but we receive it anyways. And that is why I believe that anything that I am given is going to give me miraculous support for my schooling. If I am rewarded with this scholarship, I will be able to spend less time worrying about how I’m going to pay for college, and more time focused on how I can better my study habits so that I can hopefully obtain a 4.0 GPA.
