A Will To Live- Life Teammates® Blog!
“Some Checks Are Fun To Write”
Will To Live’s, Life Teammates® Scholarship – An Award For The Kids and By the Kids
Over the past few weeks I had so much fun spending over $20,000! It was this year’s Life Teammates Scholarship check run! This year, the Will To Live Foundation awarded scholarships to 21 students who were voted on not by their school, not by their teachers, not by their coaches, not by an advisory board of adults, but by their friends – their teammates – their Life Teammates®. We can think of no better honor than being recognized by your peers, and that’s how the Life Teammate Scholarship began some seven years ago in the early days of the Will To Live Foundation.
Our goal with the Life Teammates Scholarship, from the start, was to have a positive impact on as many kids as possible. The scholarship itself is small (a one-time $1,000 award put towards the winner’s freshman year tuition), but the reach is large. Each winner is not only voted on by his or her teammates, bandmates, choirmates, or group mates, but by the entire program from freshman through seniors. We estimate this year that over 500 students voted for a Life Teammate award. This means that over 500 kids had to think about what it means to be a true life teammate on and off the field and in and out of the classroom. They had to think about who best represented love, and hope and kindness not only to their own teammates but to the younger kids in the program.
Every senior who voted this year, was voting for the fourth year in a row. Our goal is to create a family of Life Teammates in every program, and by the time these seniors graduate (and then become lowly freshman again), they may understand the power of loving your friends – The power of delivering hope to your friends – The power of creating truly positive relationships! You want to increase your Will to Live, deliver hope to your friends!
See the winners of this year’s awards – we are very proud of them, and we love the fact that they will be ambassadors of our message wherever they go!
Congrats Gang! Love Ya Man!
John & Susie Trautwein & the Will To Live Foundation!
MEET THE 2016/2017 WINNERS OF THE LIFE TEAMMATES SCHOLARSHIPS!
NVHS Volleyball: Colbie Chans (University of FL) pictured with Michael Trautwein and Matthew Pacifico of Club Will To Live |
NVHS Lacrosse: Thomas Eads (Mercer University) and Maggie Brennan (UNC) pictured with Susie Trautwein of WTL |
NVHS Soccer: Niall Killian (Kennesaw State Univ) and Olivia Mitrovich (GA State University) with John Trautwein of WTL |
NVHS Basketball: Jermaine Nemorin and Erika Hama pictured with John Trautwein of WTL |
NVHS Baseball: Thomas Cistulli (University of California, Irvine) with John and Susie Trautwein of WTL |
NVHS Fine Arts Scholarship in honor of Rob Lowenthal:Pavan Bharadwaj (Band- GA Tech), Kavya Vrid (Chorus – GA Tech), Natalie Skinner (Drama – GA State) with John Trautwein. Not pictured: Irene Zhou (Orchestra MIT) |
NVHS Swim and Dive: Graceie Clough and Drew Whitmoyer with John Trautwein |
Centennial Lacrosse – in honor of Jamie McHenry: Conner Evans (University of Richmond) here with the McHenry family! |
Northwestern University Baseball: Jake Schieber, here with head coach Spencer Allen Click here to read article on NU baseball and the Will to Live Foundation |
| Not Pictured – from NVHS:Football Cheerleading: Nicholas Gardner: GA State University
Basketball Cheerleading: Chelsea Whyte: GA State University Football: Kevin Siatkowski: Kennesaw State University Cross Country: Bryce Meyer: Milligan College & Michaela Davis; GA college and State University Orchestra: Irene Zhou – MIT |
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For more information on previous Life Teammates Scholarship winners – click here!
Sending love – and hope – and the Will to Live,
John Trautwein
August 6th, 2017
To purchase a signed copy of John Trautwein’s acclaimed memoir “MY LIVING WILL” – please click here
For more information, contact the Will To Live Foundation at friends@will-to-live.org or visit the foundation’s website at www.will-to-live.org
