Logan Hudson never expected to graduate from The Ohio State University. In fact, the ODI Scholar (YSP) never even expected to attend college.
“Where I come from, if you don’t get into college playing sports, or you’re not super smart, you don’t have the funds to go to college,” said the native of Columbus’s Linden neighborhood. “I ended up at Ohio State solely because of YSP and the funding they gave me.”
While sports may not have gotten Hudson to Ohio State, they have been a key component in his life.
“Basketball and baseball were what brought me the friends that I have, and they were an outlet for me to deal with all of the past traumas I’ve experienced. When I play, forget about the world around me,” Hudson explained. “In college, I worked with a rec center in Linden, doing after-school sports programs for low-income community kids. Being able to provide somewhere for them to get away was really cool for me.”
Hudson’s love of sports led him to enter Ohio State as an athletic training major, but he’ll be graduating this autumn with a degree in sociology. His education took place both in the classroom and through a legal internship with Rauser and Associates.
“I’m really fascinated with people and the reasons they make the decisions they do,” Hudson noted. “I enjoy learning more about society and why the world is the way it is.”
Switching his major wasn’t the only detour on Hudson’s path to graduation, however.
“I’ve thought about dropping out a bunch of times because there were some issues with financial aid, and I’ve had some personal issues with my family,” Hudson commented. “The past five years have been really crazy. I lost my brother and my dad, I got engaged, and I just recently had a baby.”
Hudson credits ODI with giving him the financial and emotional support to persevere on his Buckeye journey.
“Dr. Chila Thomas and Trinity Phillips have been saviors for me. They’ve kept me here, and they’ve really worked hard to find the funds for me to continue going to school. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be graduating this year,” Hudson said. “Knowing I had someone to go talk to and being around other YSP students who were going through the same things was huge.”
After graduation, Hudson plans to move to Perrysburg, where he has been promoted to an operations management role at Raising Cane’s. He looks forward to raising his son as his fiancée attends law school, and he hopes to eventually pursue a graduate degree.
Hudson encourages ODI Scholars to build strong support systems during their time at Ohio State.
“Connect with your professors, students, and ODI staff. Know they have your back and that it’s okay to ask for help,” Hudson advised. “It goes a long way when you show respect and love to someone else because then they’ll show it back.”