Mikayla Jaggers '20 Recruiting Profile

        February 21, 2013, the day that drastically changed my life forever, yet strange as it may seem, I don’t even remember. It was a typical day as my mom was taking my brother and I to school. However, that is the only thing that was normal about that day. On the way to school, I’m told as my mom went to pass somebody she lost control, gained it back, then lost it again spinning into oncoming traffic. A car coming from the other direction couldn’t stop in time and hit my brother’s side of the car. We were rushed to the hospital. My mom was okay, but unfortunately, my brother and I were not. My dad was faced with the hard decision of deciding which child to send in a flight for life helicopter because they could only take one of us. My dad, knowing that my brother was far worse than I was, decided to send the child who had a better chance of surviving, so he sent me. Unfortunately, my brother passed away that night. I was flown to the Swedish Hospital in Aurora, Colorado where I received expert care and a fighting chance. After I was discharged from there, I went to the Children’s Hospital where I truly began to heal. It was at Children’s where my family began to see the spark in my eye again, where my humor and happiness came back, and where people could really tell that I was going to be okay. I surprised all the doctors, improving quickly and getting discharged within a month, which was mind-blowing considering I was actually near death when I arrived at Swedish and there was a possibility of being in a coma for up to six months. I account my true progress at coming back to the person I was to Children’s. Though in both hospitals, I had a great team of doctors, nurses, and therapists to help me recover, along with my drive and determination to get better and get back to normal. It was actually from this life altering experience that I knew I wanted to go into the medical field.  

        The first medical profession I thought about was becoming a veterinarian. I love animals and I always do what I can to help them if they are hurt. I’m also very curious about animals and the environment, so I enjoy investigating when I see stray animals around town or when I see others in the wild. However, somewhere in these past years, probably after I job shadowed, I decided that being a veterinarian was not in my best interest. After that, I decided becoming a physical therapist would be fun. When I was in the hospital, that was by far my favorite therapy over speech and occupational. The physical therapist who worked with me also seemed to love her job. She was just so happy to help and had so much fun doing it. Then I job shadowed our local physical therapist last year, and decided that it wasn’t meant for me. Finally, I came across pharmacy. Pharmacy involves a lot of math and science and those are the two subjects where I excel. When I job shadowed a pharmacist, I really enjoyed the experience and the atmosphere that comes with being a pharmacist. It was a perfect fit.

        So finally having reached a decision I am happy with, my plans are to attend school at Wayne or Kearney and to major in pre-pharmacy. I plan on getting my bachelor’s degree in pre-pharmacy, and then I would like to advance to UNMC to acquire my Doctor of Pharmacy Degree. After I complete all of my schooling, I would like to come back to a rural area of Nebraska to work. After that I believe I would like to work at a Children’s Hospital because through my own convalescence I know that I love the atmosphere and there could be no higher calling than helping children. I want to help where I found help. Your scholarship could help me achieve this goal.