As a senior in high school I volunteered at Mott Children's Hospital and I loved it. So, in my freshman year at U-M, I got involved with Michigan from the Heart, an organization that works with U-M athletes and kids at Children's Hospital. We take kids from the Hospital to football, basketball and hockey games -- whatever athletic event they want to see -- where they meet the U-M athletes, have their pictures taken and get autographs.

I discovered Michigan from the Heart (MFTH) almost by accident. In my freshman year I became a student manager for the football team, which took up my Saturdays. Sundays were crammed with doing homework and such, so I was looking for a way to volunteer in other ways during the week. After games on Saturdays I saw a group of people hanging around the football locker room with kids I knew from the Hospital. I started talking with a man named Ed Bullion, the MFTH president, about me working with them on Thursday nights. Ever since September 2006, that's what I've been doing.

I guess I got the volunteer bug in my senior year in high school. I'd really look forward to the Sunday drive to Ann Arbor and the Hospital so I could work with the children. Their parents needed attention, too. They'd love to sit and talk with you and tell you their life story and what was going on with their child. I saw that everything that affected the child affected the parents. I began to see how important it is for doctors to get their diagnoses right, because their decisions didn't affect just one person. That was the moment I decided to pursue medicine -- I'd like to specialize in pediatric oncology so that I can work with children who have cancer. I want to make a difference in each patient's and family's life. I also decided that an engineering degree was still the pathway I'd take to get there.

Editor’s note: Along with being on the board for MFTH and a student manager with the Michigan Football team, Nick is the news editor for the College of Engineering's student newspaper, The All-Nighter.