May 14, 2009
First graduating class of MS Scholarship recipients
The National MS Society does not want MS to take away a student’s ability to attend college, and that is why we are proud of our Scholarship Program. Since the program’s inception, we have awarded 121 scholarships totaling more than $900,000! This winter we were able to celebrate one of our very first graduates, Katlyn Search.
We felt that Katlyn’s story needed to be shared so on May 2, 2009 at our 8th annual Dinner of Champions. The audience was silent as Katlyn Search shared her story. In the crowd was her fiancé, mother, and three of her brothers watching her with pride. At the end of her speech, she received a standing ovation and helped raise $50,000 for our local Scholarship program.Her speech brought tears to the eyes of many at the Dinner of Champions and made others realize how important education is in our community.
Below is a copy of Katlyn's speech:
When you apply for an MS scholarship, they ask you to write an essay about the effect of MS on your life. I think the best way for me to tell you that tonight is to begin by reading from that essay.
For as long as I can remember, MS has been a part of who my mother is. My mother, Stephanie, was 35 when she was diagnosed with the disease. As anyone who has a family member with MS can tell you, there are a lot of little things that change. I am the only girl in a family of seven kids. My family is important to me… and when they hurt, I hurt too. In my life these last years, more than a little has changed. My mom has more symptoms that just stay with her as the years go by. It seems that MS, in a way, has become a part of our family.
That was how my essay began. It wasn’t until a few paragraphs later that I shared more about my family’s difficulties. Two days after my sixteenth birthday, my father was killed in a car accident. As I said in my scholarship essay, you might expect your grandparents to die some day, but not your dad. I guess no one expects to be diagnosed with MS either.
My father’s death left my mother, who was unable to work full time because of her MS, on her own to support us kids. We were all home-schooled... and that took up a lot of my mom’s time. We got by on my father’s Social Security death benefits and a few dollars a month from a rural paper route that we all chipped in to help with. Just paying for day-to-day living expenses was a challenge for my family. Going to college? Well, that was a dream that seemed to die along with my dad in that crash.
At first, I wasn’t even thinking about going to college because I knew we couldn’t afford it. Then, I found out about the MS scholarship and I applied. When I got word that I’d received it, I knew that it would be possible for me to get my degree. With the help of that scholarship and other financial aid, I was able to go to George Fox University in Oregon... and I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology last December.
My brothers, Ben and Christian, also got MS Scholarships. Ben is studying to be a teacher in Oregon and Christian is in Yakima, using the funds for a two-year vocational school. With your help and support, the MS Scholarship program will continue and my younger brothers will get to pursue higher education, too.
As for how my life has been affected by MS, I guess you could say that there have been positives and negatives. Seeing what the disease does to my mom is a negative. It’s hard for her to walk or do any strenuous physical work. I’ll be getting married at our home in Battle Ground next month and she’s doing her best to help me make our gardens beautiful... but she has lost fine touch feeling in her fingers and she can’t do everything she was able to do in the past.
The MS Scholarships that enabled me and my two brothers to continue our educations are certainly one of the positives. But as important as they were, I think the biggest positive is the lessons I’ve learned from my mother. Seeing her deal with MS has taught me that our own plans do not always work out... but we keep going. I have learned that even though Mom has a hard time, she is tough and so brave. She sets goals for herself and she’s taught all of her kids to set goals, too.
After all my family and I have been through, I’ve learned so much more than just how to cope with what life throws at you. I have learned how to persevere and be strong despite those things. MS is a hard disease... and it is hard to experience it whether you have it or a family member does. We hurt and we cry, but we are strong as well. Sometimes, when you’re down, you find out just how strong your family is when they pull you back up.
Finally, through programs like the MS Scholarships, you also find out how strong your community is and how much other people care. That makes living with MS a lot easier.
~ Katlyn Search
MS Scholarship recipient