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Just weeks before her freshman year of high school, Adelyn Dozier’s family moved from Texas to Colorado. Like any other teenager, the prospect of having to build a new community of friends at a new school in an unfamiliar state weighed heavily on her. Then came a second blow. 

Shortly after starting school, Adelyn was diagnosed with severe rapid-onset scoliosis, a condition characterized by the accelerated development of an abnormal sideways curvature of the spine. It caused immense pain and discomfort, forcing her to undergo a complete spinal fusion–the insertion of multiple rods and metal screws into the vertebrae of her spine to keep it straight. 

Adelyn recalls her slow recovery after the surgery: “It was like learning how to walk again.” But eventually, with her family's love and support, she was able to overcome the mental and physical hardships she endured.

By the time she graduated high school, the obstacles had shaped her into someone who knew how to face life’s challenges head-on–so much so, she decided to postpone college and help others overcome theirs. 

“I think I got to learn the importance of having everything stripped away from me and feeling a lot more fulfilled in my life when I’m just serving others. I’ve always believed that the more you can give love, the more you’ll receive,” she says.

She embarked on a service trip to help people in Guatemala, South Africa and Ecuador. She provided support in a myriad of ways: helping students in a classroom, preparing food behind a counter, and offering emotional support to those who needed it most. 

Today, Adelyn is studying Strategy and Entrepreneurship in her second year at Leeds. It’s something she’s always been drawn to; growing up, she watched her parents open their own coffee shop. Root House Coffee proved to be a steep learning curve for her parents, who had to learn everything along the way with no prior business experience. But Adelyn learned with them. 

Now, she dreams of starting a business called Root for Each Other. She doesn’t know what kind of business it’ll be yet, but she hopes it’ll be one that will fill others' lives with joy. “I want to bring purpose into whatever business I have and share my story through it,” she says. 

When it comes to business, and life, she’s learned that some risks are worth taking.

She tells the story of how her team won their final case competition in her Communications Strategy class. As the opening speaker for her group, she did so well that two of her professors recommended she speak at Leeds Launch Day, an orientation for incoming students.

Her first instinct was to reject the offer. How could she get up and speak in front of so many people? But she’d overcome challenges that scared her before, so she decided to take the risk. 

Every life lesson she’d ever learned came back to her that day, giving her the courage and confidence she’d been cultivating for so long–from when she was forced to rebuild her life in a new town to when she battled and triumphed over her health crisis. 

She stepped up to the podium, and she nailed her speech.