Editor's note: NNUSports.com will be running Senior Spotlights on all the spring sports seniors who have elected not to come back for another year of eligibility.
 
Kourtney Gwin
Women's track and field, distance, pole vault
Major: Biology: Pre-Medicine
 
Kourtney Gwin has been flying her entire life.

Not just commercially or on a pole vault for the Northwest Nazarene women's track and field team, but also in control of a Cessna.

Now, Gwin is joining the Air Force Health Professions Scholarship program and will be appointed as a second lieutenant in the Medical Service Corps.

"My dad and brother are close to obsessed with airplanes," Gwin said. "I grew up going to air shows and I have kind of lived with it my whole life. So, it seemed like a good choice to be involved in it."

Gwin's brother Phillip was interested in going into the military, but couldn't because of a peanut allergy. So, Kourtney figured she might as well sign up.

"I looked into it and saw it would be awesome to be paid to serve my country," she said. "I got in touch with a recruiter, applied and was accepted."

She said she chose the Air Force because she knew it would be mandatory to learn how to fly a plane.

"My dad has a friend, who has a Cessna," she said. "One time he took us up and he let me fly the plant for a couple of minutes."

On the ground, Gwin's senior season ended before it ever started as the COVID-19 pandemic canceled spring sports, including the outdoor track and field season.

She is turning down the opportunity to come back to NNU next year after the NCAA ruled that all spring sports seniors have the option of an extra year of eligibility.

Instead, she will head to Lynchburg, Virginia, at the end of July to attend the Liberty School of Osteopathic Medicine.

In her first or second summer at Liberty, she will then head to Birmingham, Alabama, for commissioned officer training. Eventually, she will go to Cleveland, Ohio, to learn how to fly. After a few medical rotations with the Air Force, she will apply for a residency and eventually serve four years.

The recruiter told her she could end up serving anywhere in the world, even at home in the U.S.

"It seems like a calling, just because of the problems in the U.S. and the lack of medical care," she said. "It makes me excited that if anything (like COVID-19) ever happens again, I'll be trained to be able to help."
 
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