Chris Payer Honorary Sports Medicine Scholarship Helps Two Recipients Pursue College Careers
The Orlando Orthopaedic Center Foundation is taking its efforts to help students pursue careers in sports medicine to a new level. The foundation’s newly established Chris Payer Honorary Sports Medicine Scholarship was recently awarded to the first two recipients. Both are 2020 high school graduates pursuing a career in sports medicine. The academic scholarship continues the legacy of attorney Chris Payer, a Foundation board member who passed away in 2019.
Lake Mary High School graduate Lexi Bailey and Lake Nona High School graduate Jackson Andraski are the first two recipients and each received a $2,500 college scholarship. Candidates had the opportunity to apply in early spring. They submitted an online application, a letter of recommendation from their high school athletic trainer, and a personal essay highlighting their involvement in their school’s student athletic training and in their community.
Orlando Orthopaedic Center Foundation President Randy S. Schwartzberg, M.D., made the announcement with the students at a virtual news conference on Facebook Live.
“We’re humbled by this opportunity to help these future healthcare professionals and that we are able to present two outstanding local students with the Chris Payer Honorary Sports Medicine Scholarship,” said Dr. Schwartzberg. “We know the students will put the scholarships to good use as they pursue their passion to help athletes for years to come.”
Recently, Lexi Bailey talks about what receiving the scholarship means to her.
She says, “With it honoring Chris Payer and his legacy, I think it’s a beautiful thing to be able to do this in his name and his remembrance. I personally am excited to embody the award and to show how I can carry the legacy out.”
Bailey thanks the Orlando Orthopaedic Center Foundation for creating the scholarship and for awarding it to her to help pursue her education. She will attend the University of Central Florida beginning with the 2020-2021 academic year.
Bailey recalls how she first became interested in sports medicine in an unusual way. Before she was a student at Lake Mary High School, she remembers attending one of their football games with her older sister, and witnessing a player sustain a serious injury on the field.
“I remember being very shocked at first. I had only seen sports events like that on TV, injuries and things like that. I never really saw it to the degree that they have occurred, of literally happening in front of my face and seeing the severity of it.” She adds, “What really struck me about it was being able to see the instant response time. Seeing that injury and how bad it was and having everything stop. Then this group of people just rushed onto the field to assist this young guy who had a very serious injury. As a fan in the crowd, I was just in awe of being shocked by the injury and the severity of it, and also the immediate assistance that he was given.”
She realized she has a passion for helping injured athletes manage their pain and perform better. Bailey took advantage of the opportunity to learn more about sports medicine in action than she could by just reading textbooks.
“I’ve had the opportunity to explore many aspects of sports medicine being a student trainer at my highschool these past four years. I had an opportunity to be on the field next to my head athletic trainer. So I have that aspect that I have been looking into, in terms of being an on-the-field athletic trainer. That is definitely something I have been interested in.”
Bailey is weighing several career paths tied to sports medicine. “I also am interested in kinesiology (the study of human movement) and possibly becoming a sport medicine physician’s assistant. With all that, I would say anyone pursuing a career in sports medicine, there are a bunch of careers to look into, because it isn’t one general idea, but it’s in terms of specifics and what you’re passionate about and finding that nook to go into.”
Bailey says her experience as a student athletic training aid gave her insights into what a sports medicine career could be like, and also helped her identify her passion to help injured athletes manage their injuries and return to the field.
She speaks from experience.
“I have played on several sports teams throughout high school. It’s not only just me experiencing game injuries myself, but also teammates or opponents seeing injuries. As a student trainer throughout high school as well, working closely with our sports athletic teams, having people come in complaining about pain, I think it’s just a great opportunity to be a resource for an athlete.” Bailey adds, “It’s a chance to be able to come to treat their pain, to manage it, and essentially help them become better in their sport that they are in.”
Bailey competed on her high school soccer team and track team, and she had many conversations with teammates about preventing injuries and nursing minor ones.
“My fellow teammates knew that I, especially during my senior and junior year, had been a student athletic trainer for several years. So they would come to me before games and be like ‘Lexi my ankle is hurting. What do I do?’ And it’s not that simple obviously, but even when we had our head athletic trainer, whether it would be at an away game, a home game or at a practice. So I kind of got that aspect of it, helping my former teammates when they had an injury. That was definitely something that I found joy in, being able to assist them and take their pain away or help them manage it by giving them advice from things that I have learned.”
In order to qualify for the scholarship, Bailey had to submit a personal essay, explaining her interest in a sports medicine career. Near the end of her essay she addresses her belief in the need to experience some sense of failure during your academic career.
Bailey realizes no one is perfect, and it will take time for her to achieve success during college, her career and in life. “Not everyone has the perfect career or school and gets everything exactly the way they want it. It takes those struggles that you have to overcome to learn from them, which essentially will overall make you more successful in your career, in your education and everything like that.”
She understands that knowledge and wisdom come over time. “I hope I am very successful, but it’s essentially at the end of the day, when you experience those struggles and you face those challenges and when you overcome them, that they do help you become a better person overall.”
The Orlando Orthopaedic Center Foundation plans to make the Chris Payer Honorary Sports Medicine Scholarship an annual scholarship. Visit OrlandoOrthoFoundation.org for more information about the foundation and its various programs.
