BIOGRAPHY

I grew up in Streamwood, IL, which is a northwest suburb of Chicago near Elgin. I have two brothers, one who is 23 and one who is 17. Throughout elementary school, middle school, and high school, I played the violin with the school orchestra and played softball. After high school, I attended Elgin Community College for two years, which I met many of my closest friends and had many positive experiences. Currently, I am a senior at the University of Illinois pursing a degree in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and Business Process Management. When I graduate school, I hope to work at a community college or possibly American Cancer Society, and to one day start my own not-for-profit organization to help others.

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Cancer is this horrific monster with a mind of its own, attacking those we love. Almost everyone will at some point in his or her life be touched by cancer, whether it is themselves who has had cancer, a family member, a friend, an acquaintance, a co-worker, or a friend of a friend. My experience with cancer first started about twelve years ago when my uncle passed away from brain cancer. I was too young at the time to really understand what cancer was, however, I was not too young to know that my uncle had lost his life to something terrible. As years passed, cancer became more evident in my life. Both of my grandpas are prostate cancer survivors, and my grandmother (my dad’s mom) is a colon cancer survivor. In addition, my aunt and my cousin both survived skin cancer. While I am extremely happy that these loved ones all won their battle, I am sad to say that this is not true for a few others in my life. This past year has been one of the worst years of my life. It was a true wakeup call to me about how dangerous cancer really is. Before this year, I have never experienced the death of someone close to me (at an age that I can understand what is going on). In October of 2008, my high school friend, Darleen, passed away after battling Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, for a little over two years. My grandmother (my mom’s mom) then lost her battle to colon cancer in July 2009, followed by a close family friend in August 2009 to liver cancer, and an ex-co-worker in October 2009 from lymph node cancer. I have had many people close to me who have unfortunately had cancer and I have experienced extreme pain from losing some of them. This is why I chose to ride my bike for cancer and raise money for the American Cancer Society this summer. I dedicate my ride to those in my life who have lost their lives to cancer and to those who have survived it, as well as to all others whose lives have been touched by cancer. This is my fight against cancer and I pray that we find a cure one day soon.