DearReviewCommittee,

My name is Ari Polanco, this is my second yearat Pine LakePreparatory,andIama senior. Priorto
attending Pine Lake Preparatory, I spent my freshman year at William Amos Hough High School in
Cornelius,NC,andthenreceivedascholarshiptoattendaprominentprep/boardingschoolinGeorgia.
Apart fromattending Pine Lakefulltime,IhavebeenemployedforoverayearandahalfbySpareTime
Entertainment,abowlingalley,gameroomandrestaurant,inHuntersville,NC.
Outsideofacademicsandwork,Ihaveparticipatedinseveralactivities,sportsandclubs. OneclubIhave
participated inandthatIthoroughlyenjoyed beinga part of becauseitwassuch agreat experiencewas
theExcelClub,whichinvolvedservingourcommunity.
Sports hasalwaysbeenapassionofmineand Ihavetriedmyhandatseveral,beginningatayoungage. I
amoriginallyfrom NewYork,somyparentsintroducedme tothesportoflacrosse attheageof3. AsI
gota littleolder,Ialso took aliking to baseball,basketball,football, soccerandgolf. Obviously,Icould
not play every sport, so during middle school I focused more on just football and basketball (because
lacrosse wasnotavailableat thetime). IplayedbothsportsandduringmyfreshmanyearatHoughHigh
School,IwasrecruitedbyaprepschoolinGeorgiaforbasketballandfootball.
Goingawaytoa boardingandprepschoolhasbeen one ofthe bestexperiencesofmylifesofar. Itwas
just like beingawayat college, living oncampusandsharing adormroom witharoommate. Whatwas
sogreat aboutthisschool was thefactthatroughly90% ofthe studentswereinternational. For thetwo
yearsIspentthere,Ihada roommatefrom South Korea and aroommatefromSerbia. Icanliterallysay
thatIhavelifelongfriendsfromseveralothercountries.
Having suffered three concussions playingfootball,myparents andIdecidedthatitwouldbedetrimental
to my health to continue playing football and that I should look into participating in alternate sports.
Givingup footballwasadifficultdecisionformebecauseitwasmyfavoritesportandIreallyexcelledat
it, but I also knewthatsustaining multipleheadinjuriescanbefatalandthatmyoverall health ismore
importantthanplayingacertainsport.
OnceIbeganschoolatPineLakePreparatory,Idecided tocontinue playing basketballandsinceIgave
nd
up football, I thought I would give running track a try. Although Im fairly new totrack(2
year),I
found that it taughtmea lotabout myself. Track isreally anindividual sportandIwassousedtobeing
onteamsportswithalotofteammates.
Everysport teaches lifelessons,likelearninghow toworkasateamhowtomakesacrificesdiscipline
and how to deal with failure, however, with running track your mind plays a bigger part in how you
compete, itsmore than justthe xs and os orplaysthatyoumemorize,andIfoundthatIreallyenjoyed
running, probably more than any other sport. Running has taught me a lot about myself. Through
running, I havelearnedsomuch,someexamplesare: howtobeabetterleaderhowtosetspecificgoals
how to train my mind to keep going, even when my body wants to quit howtopacemyself, not just
whilerunning butin otheraspectsinlifeaswellhowtoeathealthierthatmycompetitorisnttheperson
besideme,buttheoneinsideofmeandthatpeoplewhoarebetterthanmemotivatedmetodobetter.
Running has been so rewarding onsomany levels. It hasnot only taught melifelonglessons,but also
shown me that with a little bit of hard work anddedicationI canachievegreataccomplishments. Just
after one season of track at Pine Lake Preparatory, I broke the schools records in both the100m and
200m I was awardedAllLake, AllConference, AllState,MVP fortrack, andwas inthetop ten atthe
Statemeet.Inaddition,IwaspresentedwithTheOutstandingSprinterawardforourtrackteam.

Playingsportshas beena hugepartofmylife and is one that I hopetocontinueafterhighschoolandat

thecollegiatelevel.
For my Pride Project, I chose Sports Medicine. I have played sports since a very youngage and had
dreams of becoming agreat NFLorNBAstar! However,asIgotolder,Irealizedthatmytalentsarenot
up there with the MichaelJordans, LeBronJamesandKobeBryantsof the world.OnceIcameback
downtoreality,Irealized that I can still have aconnectiontothesportsllove,andalsobeofservicenot
only locally, but globally as well, which is why I am pursuing a future in Sports Medicine. Sports
Medicine deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and
exercise. I realizedthatthiswouldbe theidealcareerpathformebecauseas anathlete,Ihavesustained
just about every injury imaginable, therefore, listening to and diagnosing an athletes injury would be
extremelyrelatable.
In the fallof2015,Iwill have applied toseveral collegesthatIfeelwouldbesthelp meachievemygoal
ofbecomingaSportsMedicinephysician.IwouldliketomajorinBiology,onapremedtrack.
For my pride product, I choseto conducta manual therapy procedureon astudent fromPineLake and
present it on video. Inorder tosuccessfully demonstrate this exam,Implanningtoobservemymentor,
Dr.Garcia,typenotes,andtakephotoswhileheperformshisnormalprocedures.DuringmypresentationI
willdemonstrate widerangingtechniques onthestudentsuchas:athoroughevaluationthatis basedon a
comprehensivemultisystem approachinvolving jointmobility, softtissueassessmentanda neurological
examination onvideo. In additiontothemanualtherapyprocedure, Iwillcreatea drawnvisualdiagram
on poster of each of thestepsincluded intheproceduresin the exam eachof thejudges will receive a
copy of the visual diagram during my presentation and the product will take an estimated 48hours to
complete.
My personal goal for mypride projectistomaster atraditionalskillthatallsportsmedicine physicians
perform ona daytodaybasis,beableto get ahead startonmycareerincollegebypracticinghandson
with a professional sports physician,as well aspassingtheoverall project.Inaddition, if anyfriends or
family members were to acquire aninjuryIcould applytheseskillsto assess and pinpoint theproblem
providingthemwiththecaretheyneeduntiltheyareabletogotothedoctors.
My product would tether perfectly with my presentation because it will show all of the necessary
procedures incorporated with the manual exam, ensuring the athlete a healthy recovery. My goal is to
finishmymentorhoursbeforeDecember2015andcompletemyPrideProductbyearlyJanuary2016.
Thankyou.
Regards,
AriPolanco