Spring 2023 Winner of The Bright Futures Scholarship

Rylee Scott Hoffman

Rylee Hoffman is an incoming freshman at Lander University. After earning her undergraduate degree, Rylee hopes to move forward in her educational career to also attend law school. Through her essay, readers learn of Rylee’s natural-born leadership skills and how she powered through difficult moments early on in high school.

Read Rylee's Essay:

My name is Rylee Hoffman I was born and raised in Hanahan, South Carolina. My whole life I have always been told I am a leader. In kindergarten, my teacher would tell me that I was the most independent girl she had seen and she knew I would be a good leader. I believe this is because I grew up with a single mom who taught me everything I know about being independent and not letting anyone walk over me. I have always wanted to make a difference and I believe that leading people in clubs such as Beta and national honors society creates a better society. I was vice president of Beta club and National Honors Society. Throughout the 2 years I have been in the National Honor Society, the other officers and I have come up with new and creative ways to get people involved in the community. We have done candy grams to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We also did book drives for our middle school and elementary school. I am also team captain of my cheer team. I keep everyone positive and make sure everyone is doing the best they can. I love being there for the younger girls and making sure they never lose their love for cheer. I always want them to feel safe coming to me and asking for advice and when they just need someone to talk to. In my sophomore year of high school I blew my knee out at a cheer competition and got back up and continued my routine. I found out a couple weeks later I was going to have to get surgery and I would not be able to cheer for a year. I was so scared that I was never going to cheer again and I would have to give up the one thing I felt like I was good at. I have worked so hard and put in a lot of dedication to physical therapy to be able to come back in less than a year. I got all my skills back within 8 months and was able to compete with my team again. I have been cheering since I was 5 and I could not give up on what I have always loved. My team the next year became undefeated in the southeast. We won regional summit which was an amazing accomplishment. As everyone knows Covid ruined many things for so many people. It was my freshman year of high school that was totally changed. I was just getting used to high school and halfway through this mystery virus shut everything down. I was so scared of the new things that were happening but I knew I could not let this stop me from getting good grades. My entire life I have wanted to go to college to be a lawyer. I knew this meant I was going to have to graduate with honors from highschool and college. I worked hard throughout the entire pandemic to never let my grades drop. I would join google meets before school and after school getting help. I also had to do online school when I was recovering from my knee surgery and that made everything harder. I have worked hard my whole life to get good grades, be a good cheerleader, and make money to pay for cheer and save for college.