By Bridgett Dillard

Davie Community Foundation

Most high school students are uncertain about their future career path, but not Kaitlin (Fletcher) Jackson.

Kaitlin felt a calling from an early age to become a physical therapist and was determined to make her career dreams a reality.

Kaitlin attended Western Carolina University from 2016-2020 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in recreational therapy. During her undergraduate years, Kaitlin received numerous scholarships through the Davie Community Foundation: the Bobby & Bernice Knight Scholarship, Davie High Class of 1976 Scholarship, Roger and Lisa Davis and Family Scholarship, Roy and Ruth Eldridge Scholarship, Samuel P. Hall Memorial Scholarship and the White Martin Scholarship.

After graduating, she continued to physical therapy school, graduating in 2023 with her doctor of physical therapy degree. There, she received the Roger and Lisa Davis and Family Scholarship and the Davie Hospital Foundation Scholarship.

“Basically, throughout Kaitlin’s college career she received scholarship investments,” said Jane Simpson, Davie Community Foundation President & CEO. “Kaitlin gave back to her community along the way and even volunteered at foundation events to show her appreciation for the community investment. We are all proud of Kaitlin’s hard work and accomplishments.”

Kaitlin married James Jackson in September 2023. Today, she works as an acute care physical therapist in the Charlotte area and serves as a site coordinator of clinical education for physical therapy students completing rotations at the facility where she works.

Because physical therapy school is demanding, Kaitlin had minimal time to carry a job.

“Receiving these scholarships helped to decrease the stress and anxiety of financially affording school and allowed me to focus solely on gaining the education I needed to become a physical therapist.”

Kaitlin credits developing time management skills as helpful in managing the complexity of her college schedule. Then, a busy student and now a working adult, Kaitlin relies on Google Calendar to keep her schedule in order and highly recommends college students use it, too. “The calendar on my phone included classes, extracurricular activities, study groups/project meetings so that I could easily figure out where I needed to be on campus and ensure I had enough time to get there.”

While Kaitlin knew what she wanted to study, she recognizes that many are not as decisive. She advises high school students to begin looking into what interests them as early as possible to help narrow down a field of interest.

By planning ahead, Kaitlin was able to structure her junior and senior year schedules with classes that met college requirements. This helped decrease the number of courses she had to take during college, ultimately saving her time and money.

Visit www.daviefoundation.org.