Preston Higginbotham
University of Nebraska at Omaha | Expected Graduation: 2026
Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School Graduate
Walter Scott, Jr. Scholarship Recipient
Molecular and Biomedical Biology Major on a Pre-Medicine Track
Chemistry and Computer Science Minor
Computers and basketball have been two things that have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up around the game of basketball in my hometown of Omaha, NE. While I do not recall the event, I attended my first Creighton game when I was two years old which fueled the interest in basketball I have to this day. In regards to technology, one of my favorite things to do, when my parents allowed me, was to mess around with some programs on our computer when I was very young. One of my first notable technology experiences was when I was able to setup a D.V.D player for my grandmother when I was only three years old.
I had, for multiple years, extreme hip tightness that progressed into hip pain over time and made doing anything athletic increasingly difficult. For many months I researched what my injury could be and began reading medical journals to try and deepen my knowledge about possible conditions. I became very interested in understanding how these conditions occurred and eventually narrowed it down to one specific condition I thought I may have. My sophomore year of high school my assumption proved correct as I was diagnosed with bilateral mixed-type femoral acetabular impingement (FAI) and acetabular retroversion that had led to bilateral torn hip labrums and grade 2 articular cartilage damage. I was mere months of damage away from athletically being removed from athletics for the remainder of my life. The damage was severe enough that surgery and being forced out of the sport I love playing for the next 10 months was the only option. I would spend the entire year following surgery in physical therapy learning a new gate pattern to both walk and run. The changes I got out of this process were life-changing and gave me the ability to enjoy doing what I love more than I ever had before the surgeries. It also revealed to me just how profound being able to help someone else by sharing my experiences could be which has led to my desire to go into medicine. I want to be able to make the same impact my surgeon and physical therapy team made on my life for someone else.
My original desire had always been to go into computer science and eventually software engineering, spending lots of time in high school with my Cyberpatriot team or in a computer science class, but I learned how much more rewarding being able to go into medicine would be for me personally. With that being said, I have decided to continue to pursue computer science in my undergrad because of the profound impact technology has in modern medicine. I want to work with patients as a physician someday, hopefully as an orthopedic surgeon or sports medicine doctor, but I also hope to be able to use a computer science degree to help develop technology that may help some of these patients that currently may not always have a great answer to their issue.
University of Nebraska at Omaha | Expected Graduation: 2026
Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School Graduate
Walter Scott, Jr. Scholarship Recipient
Molecular and Biomedical Biology Major on a Pre-Medicine Track
Chemistry and Computer Science Minor
Computers and basketball have been two things that have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up around the game of basketball in my hometown of Omaha, NE. While I do not recall the event, I attended my first Creighton game when I was two years old which fueled the interest in basketball I have to this day. In regards to technology, one of my favorite things to do, when my parents allowed me, was to mess around with some programs on our computer when I was very young. One of my first notable technology experiences was when I was able to setup a D.V.D player for my grandmother when I was only three years old.
I had, for multiple years, extreme hip tightness that progressed into hip pain over time and made doing anything athletic increasingly difficult. For many months I researched what my injury could be and began reading medical journals to try and deepen my knowledge about possible conditions. I became very interested in understanding how these conditions occurred and eventually narrowed it down to one specific condition I thought I may have. My sophomore year of high school my assumption proved correct as I was diagnosed with bilateral mixed-type femoral acetabular impingement (FAI) and acetabular retroversion that had led to bilateral torn hip labrums and grade 2 articular cartilage damage. I was mere months of damage away from athletically being removed from athletics for the remainder of my life. The damage was severe enough that surgery and being forced out of the sport I love playing for the next 10 months was the only option. I would spend the entire year following surgery in physical therapy learning a new gate pattern to both walk and run. The changes I got out of this process were life-changing and gave me the ability to enjoy doing what I love more than I ever had before the surgeries. It also revealed to me just how profound being able to help someone else by sharing my experiences could be which has led to my desire to go into medicine. I want to be able to make the same impact my surgeon and physical therapy team made on my life for someone else.
My original desire had always been to go into computer science and eventually software engineering, spending lots of time in high school with my Cyberpatriot team or in a computer science class, but I learned how much more rewarding being able to go into medicine would be for me personally. With that being said, I have decided to continue to pursue computer science in my undergrad because of the profound impact technology has in modern medicine. I want to work with patients as a physician someday, hopefully as an orthopedic surgeon or sports medicine doctor, but I also hope to be able to use a computer science degree to help develop technology that may help some of these patients that currently may not always have a great answer to their issue.