As a child, Jacob Westover remembers being asked by a counselor if he felt helpless. The word stung within the deepest parts of him. One parent diagnosed with terminal cancer, the other ensnared in the grip of addiction, Jacob grew up in the undertow of grief and abuse. Helpless. The word resonated so deeply it was like hearing his own name.

“It wasn’t who I wanted to be,” Jacob says. “I decided it wasn’t who I had to be, either.”

Statistically, kids like Jacob are unlikely to escape compounding trauma. It follows them into adulthood, eliminating opportunity, killing ambition. Jacob likes beating the odds. He gets that from his mom.

When he was in the fourth grade, his mother was given only a few months to live after being diagnosed with stage four skin cancer. She made him a promise that she would see him graduate high school.

“She told me, ‘I’ll be there,’ and she was,” he says. “She got to see me finish. She’s currently in remission, and when I say she never gave up, I mean it. She’s the strongest woman I know.”

His mother’s resilience throughout her illness inspired him to pursue psychology and join the U.S. Air Force, where he is helping individuals experiencing helplessness and PTSD overcome their circumstances. In 2023, Jacob was named a recipient of the James E. and Jill S. Anderson Veterans Student Scholarship.

“How we respond to life is in our control,” Jacob says. “At my core, I want to instill hope in others that there can be a better more positive future, even when you’re given something brutal. Our perceptions shape everything. Because of my mom, I don’t see unfortunate circumstances as a threat—they’re just challenges we’re about to learn how to overcome.”