tiffany blumhorst: finding a way
Like standing on a frozen lake and hearing the ice crack beneath her feet.
That’s the kind of stress Tiffany Blumhorst, accounting major and golf scholarship recipient, felt last fall.
Tiffany’s a transfer student from Kaskaskia Community College, which is so close to her town of Addieville that she could live at home for her first two years of college.
Where the Stress Came From
She had to leave home to come to UIS, and the stress started building right away:
“At the beginning of school last semester,” she says, “we started school and then we started golf right away, and there was no time to go home.”
Added to being homesick was the unexpected difficulty of her accounting classes: “I’ve had A’s all my life, and I wasn’t getting A’s last semester.” The accounting classes at UIS, she says, are “tough—definitely an eye-opener. I was stressed all the time.”
So stressed that she thought several times about leaving.
How She Handled the Stress
And yet Tiffany’s still here. She did better than pass her tough accounting classes (“A’s and B’s!”), and is back this semester with everything going better. As for the stress, she’s back on shore, no ice cracking beneath her.
Golf kept her here, she says.
“I don’t think I would have actually left, but golf played a major factor in my staying here. When I was having trouble, I would tell my mom that I wanted to leave, that I wanted to go home."
At that point, Tiffany's mom would remind her how important golf was and how much she was gaining from the program.
The Role You Can Play
You can be part of the huge difference that athletics and the athletics staff make in students’ lives by giving to athletic scholarships. Every sport at UIS has a scholarship fund. Please give to athletics scholarships because when you give to athletics, you change a student’s life.
Just look at Tiffany, who says athletics helped to keep her at UIS.
Doing Okay?
As for academics, Tiffany says, the athletic staff made a huge difference there as well. They could see she was stressed out, and asked all the time, “How’s your accounting going? Are you doing okay?” Their encouragement helped her to calm down, dig a little deeper
More Than Money
So you see, an athletic scholarship gives students more than money.
In so many ways, an athletic scholarship provides a second family for students, especially through the close and caring attention given to students by the athletic staff. Please give to athletics scholarships for this reason: you can be part of that extended family by providing scholarship money that brings wonderful student athletes like Tiffany to UIS and keeping them here.
Questions?
Please use the Send Us Your Question link or contact our office directly at 217.206.6058.
