Meet the 2022 Scholars

"2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the AbbVie CF Scholarship. As we celebrate this milestone, we look forward to continuing to recognize more students pursing their educational goals. Please share your future ambitions in the Cystic Fibrosis community, professionally and personally."

The AbbVie CF Scholarship has allowed countless individuals with Cystic Fibrosis, like myself, to pursue their dreams and passions. I am beyond thankful for all of their contributions to the CF community and hope to give back to the same community that means so much to me. My future ambitions involve pursuing a master’s degree in Elementary Education. I just finished my first year of teaching first grade and want to further my education to become an even better educator for my future students. I have always been passionate about working with children and seeing the impact that all of my teachers have had on me inspires me to be that kind of role model for younger generations. I want to prove to myself and others in the CF community that despite our illness, individuals with CF are able to have big ambitions and achieve them when we set our minds to it. Despite the challenges of living with Cystic Fibrosis, our futures are full of endless possibilities. If anything, living with CF has taught me to work even harder and how to overcome unforeseen obstacles along the way. I hope to inspire other young adults with CF to follow their dreams and not let their illness affect the future ambitions that they have for themselves. If I could have had a look into the future to where I am now, the nine year old version of myself who was just diagnosed with an illness that she knew absolutely nothing about at the time would be so proud to see a twenty-three year old version of herself who is living out her dreams. My personal goals for myself keep changing as I keep proving that I am capable of reaching those goals. At the time of my diagnosis, I thought that my life could never be like that of a “normal” person. I can say that my life is just what I had hoped it would be over 10 years following my diagnosis. I went to college with my friends, graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree, got a job teaching in the best school district in Alabama, and am in the best health of my life thanks to all of the new medications that have come out for patients with CF. I have achieved more than I ever could have imagined and I did it all on top of having Cystic Fibrosis. In the years to come, I aspire to earn my master’s degree, get married, and start a family of my own. I hope that my story with CF inspires others to not let their CF define them but rather empower them to defy the limitations that their illness tries to place on them. It’s your future, so go out there and create it!