Business Matters

By Rebecca Barrett

Nick Hoddevik’s path to college isn’t the one he expected. It’s better.

During the fourth week of Lakeridge High School’s 2017 football season, Nick Hoddevik, a four-year varsity player, was called in unexpectedly for a kick return. A standout running back, Hoddevik wasn’t usually in for these plays. But his coaches needed him, and as one of the best athletes on the team, Hoddevik stepped forward.

What happened next changed his future.

“One guy came in high. One came in low. My ankle got caught in the turf,” Hoddevik says.

Every other time he was roughed up on a play, Hoddevik was able to make it off the field on his own. Not this time.

A few days later, Hoddevik was at the doctor’s office, looking at X-rays of his broken ankle and talking about his options for recovery when he happened to glance down at his phone.

An alert showed that he had received an email from Oregon State University College of Business.

Hoddevik, then a high school senior who had been actively recruited by several football programs, had just learned that his sports injury would effectively end all prospects for receiving an athletic scholarship to attend college.

But that email brought new hope.

Hoddevik learned he had been selected as one of two recipients for the first Anne E. and David A. Thompson Family Scholarship, a four-year College of Business scholarship, covering the cost of attendance, including support for experiential learning, professional leadership and development.

Though he was in significant physical pain, the news brought great relief to Hoddevik and his family, who would not have been able to pay for college without it.

“If not for this scholarship, I would not have gone to the school I wanted to,” Hoddevik says.

Hoddevik has spent his whole life in Lake Oswego. In addition to football, he also did track and lacrosse, volunteered and has worked since he was a sophomore.

Before he got hurt, Hoddevik assumed his path to college would be through sports. He was talking to some Ivy League schools, Washington State and Montana. He had applied to Oregon State, but says there wasn’t much interest in him as an athlete. But he had exceptional grades.

The Thompson Scholarship, among the most significant and comprehensive offered by the College of Business, seeks to assist students like Hoddevik, who with limited resources, would otherwise struggle to make the most of their potential.

Hoddevik is studying finance and hopes to become the first person in his family to finish college. He says his parents have helped him to stay focused on school and his future. Recently, the family fell on hard times when his dad was out of work. There was a time when they didn’t have enough money to fix the broken shower or make other home repairs. Hoddevik showered at the sports club.

Those experiences molded Hoddevik.