When you ask first-generation student Christan Cook what motivated him to get his kinesiology degree at UW, he says, “It was my mother.”

“My mother is a fighter,” Christian says. “That’s all I can say, point blank. My mother was a single mother of three. That meant working two jobs and providing for us—me when I was a child, my siblings. She has given all of herself. She helps me through school now. I talk to her pretty much every single day. She is my rock, that’s for sure. She’s completely and utterly the best person in my entire life.”

“My mother sought out physical therapy multiple times with multiple surgeries, and as we are in this rural community (Ranchester), we would have to drive hours and hours to get any surgery, any health-related treatments,” Christian says. “I could see that her getting back to the point where she could walk, where she can go back to work again—that was something that was insane to me.”

This is what has led him to seek a career in physical therapy—he saw a way to help other people in rural areas, people like his mom: “Thinking about the other people who are in my position—where their mothers, their fathers, their grandmothers, their grandfathers, siblings, cousins could get that help from me as a person—was my big journey into physical therapy.”

Christian was helped along the way by the Gordon S. and Charlott Myers Nursing Scholarship. “This scholarship will make a significant difference in my life by alleviating the financial burden that comes with pursuing a college education,” he says. “Moreover, this scholarship will provide me with the means to explore additional educational opportunities, which will enhance my academic and personal growth.”