What is the biggest contribution that you have made to your community? by Jacob

What is the biggest contribution that you have made to your community? by Jacob - January 2024 Scholarship Essay

My name is Jacob Kellogg. I had a rough start in life, but I have learned to embrace challenges. At birth, I was born testing positive for cocaine and was born with a viral infection in my lungs. I was taken from my biological mom at the hospital, and placed into foster care. I met my adoptive parents when I was 2 months old when they started the process to adopt me. I was always a very active kid, running, playing, and enjoyed being outdoors. I had asthma until I was 5 years old and had to have breathing treatments every 4 hours. I tried not to let asthma stop me from playing hard every day. In the first grade, I was diagnosed with ADHD and have been on medication since then. The medication helps manage my inability to focus and also helps me feel a little more in control and calm. However, it comes with some negative side effects like not having an appetite and, therefore, not being able to gain weight. Kids at school have called me names like “bones” or skinny and have made fun of my appearance. On top of that the medication also seemed to make me much more aware when other kids were teasing me. That was a significant challenge for a young boy.

However, ADHD often channels my focus into things I'm passionate about. Since before I was 2 I have loved baseball! T-ball, recreation league baseball, all-star baseball, travel baseball, and high-school baseball. I’ve tried basketball and soccer but always come back to baseball. Especially pitching. For some reason being at the center of a baseball field involved in every play is where I feel the most focused.

Playing a sport that rewards team performance can be frustrating. It takes a lot of things going right for a team to win often. Not only do you have to pitch well, but also hit and play defense well. And even then, you need a little luck. Umpires with good vision on close plays or strong rawhide laces in your glove when fielding hard line drives. But even though losing is hard, it teaches you how to deal with disappointment. I’ve had a lot of coaches over 10 years of playing baseball. Some yelled a lot and pushed us hard. Some praised a lot and didn’t teach too much. I think the best coaches were the ones telling us to pick up our teammates after an error or a strikeout. Those coaches have made me want to encourage my teammates as a player and, really, made me want to be a coach. Baseball provides me with a sense of purpose.

When I volunteered as a buddy to disabled baseball players in the Mauldin Miracle League, I got to see kids who were happy just to be playing baseball. Some of them were shy, but some stuck to me like glue and talked to me a lot. Maybe they weren’t ever going to be able to compete on a standard baseball field with kids their age, but they sure reminded me what the game of baseball is about: playing your heart out and having fun. Volunteering for the Miracle League is my biggest contribution to the community and has inspired me to want to be a coach someday and I am excited to go to college to learn how to be a good one. After many years of hard work, I have been given an opportunity to play baseball in college. I want to learn to balance education with working to be a better baseball player. I believe that my past experiences, both successes, and setbacks, have prepared me well for the challenges that lie ahead. I am looking forward to my college journey and the path it will put me on to making a positive impact on others.