Teacher that impacted my live by Phillip

Teacher that impacted my live by Phillip - January 2025 Scholarship Essay

While I was in high school I took many classes and had many teachers that impacted me but there is one teacher in mind that I have learned many life lessons from. His name is David Oliver. To give a little background information he was a collegiate football player and attended the University of Wisconsin. His dream was to be a football player but he learned in college that football was not what he truly loved. While in college he explored many avenues that eventually led him to be an athletic trainer. This dream then evolved into him being the athletic trainer of many teams from the high school to the professional level. Later in his life, he started his physical therapy clinic where he trained athletes, rehabbed athletes, and studied many different kinds of sports psychology. Now he is a teacher at my high school and he is teaching and training students on what it means to be an athletic trainer, how it is, and why they should become one. 
While in high school I took his anatomy and sports medicine class. While I was still new to what it meant to be an athletic trainer he pushed me in the right direction. While in high school he was also my lacrosse coach and he taught me many things. The biggest lesson that he taught me was what it meant to fully trust in the Lord no matter what the situation is. Unfortunately, David Oliver suffered from stage four lymphoma. He suffered from cancer for about 2 years. He went through many surgeries and procedures that caused him to lose his hair, had metal rods in his legs, and had surgery on his back. During the whole process of going through cancer, I remember when he would show up to practice to still coach and guide my teammates and me. He told many stories of what it meant to fully surrender to the Lord even when you don’t know what the next day is going to look like. He said there were times in the hospital that he felt like giving up and throwing in the towel but God reminded Him that there is still more fight in him. At present, he has beat cancer and continues to teach at my high school. Throughout high school, I looked up to him as a mentor and a role model because he showed me what it meant to surrender to the Lord and give every situation to Him. I learned that I may not know what the next day looks like but I know that I should continue to fight because the Lord will make a way. There were many moments in class where he would give his life lessons on how school correlates to our faith in God. He taught us that we need to fight to the end and not give up. He said that we will have a reward in whatever we do whether it is academics, sports, work, or family. He taught us through educating us that we should trust in the Lord and fully surrender to Him. Overall David Oliver has been the teacher/mentor that has impacted my life the most throughout my education.