Unlocking My Potential
How Six Months Back at UHP Reminded Me of What’s Possible
About a month and a half ago, I finished a six-month contract at UHP for their Integrative Health Coaching (IHC) Course. It felt serendipitous. I had graduated from UHP's IHC program a year earlier, in November 2024, and from the moment I stepped on campus as a student, I knew this was a place I wanted to stay connected to.
This all started to come full circle when I returned to UHP in November 2025 to attend their first pilot Culinary Nutrition Coach (CNC) Course. I was asked to serve as a Resident Assistant (RA), providing continuity and peer support across a course split into modules taught by different instructors. During that time, I passed my NBHWC Board exam, and was offered a contracted staff role at UHP as an IHC Guest Coach and Program Coordinator from December to May.
Over those six months, I worked across five different IHC and Certified Personal Training cohorts. I witnessed well over 300 students transform in a matter of weeks. I saw the organization scale rapidly in real time and learned from subject matter experts with genuinely rare depth in their respective fields. I had the privilege of working alongside one of the best teams I've ever been part of: a team rooted in purpose and mission, and committed to giving our students, our American veterans, the best possible experience imaginable.
But if I'm honest, what I’m most grateful for, is what my time at UHP did for me.
The Nerves I Didn't Expect
As the RA for the CNC Course, I found myself nervous to stand in front of the room. That felt crazy to me. I had separated from the Navy just 19 months earlier, and in that time I'd grown genuinely comfortable presenting, teaching a class, and leading my team at the Human Performance Center. But something about leading my peers through a course taught by instructors I deeply respected had me tongue-tied and honestly just straight up nervous. It took about two weeks before I felt comfortable simply walking the class through the next day's schedule.
Fast forward to December, during my first cohort as an IHC Guest Coach, our lead instructors stepped out for the afternoon, and I was asked to lead a module… solo. As I emerged at the front of the class, a student made a joke about it being "Substitute Teacher Day." It stung a little more than I expected, and for a minute, had me questioning whether I belonged up there at all. But I trusted the work I'd put in to get into that room, and sure enough, the confidence and excitement to teach, to maybe actually impact someone, came trickling back.
The Session That Changed Things
The real shift happened when I was asked to run a live coaching demo in front of the class.
I was wildly intimidated. Sure, I'd recently passed my NBHWC board exam, but these students were training to become coaches, and they were learning from some of the best Health & Wellness Coaches in the industry. I had only been in their seats a year prior. What value could I possibly add?
But, I said yes anyway.
I knew this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. A chance to step outside my comfort zone and learn from whatever came out of this session, good or bad.
I was paired with a student who'd shown tremendous grit in the few weeks I'd known him. A man actively redefining what was possible for himself. The session was raw. It was deep and emotional, and yet his infectious joy and courageous spirit seemed to illuminate the room. Somehow, in front of a class of twenty students, it felt like we were the only ones on that 800-acre campus in Northwest Arkansas.
When it ended, he thanked me, and I thanked him right back. I meant it. I learned as much from his strength that day as he learned from anything I offered as a coach.
In that moment, we were both coming to terms with the same lesson: that the potential awaiting us was much greater than either of us had been giving ourselves credit for.
What Six Months Unlocked
This wasn’t the only time I had an experience like this at UHP. Time and time again, between coaching demos and offhand conversations with students and faculty, I was reminded why this work matters. And specifically, of why my work matters. I was trusted by leaders who asked about my goals and strengths, and more importantly, who saw potential in me before I fully saw it myself. That kind of trust is rare, and it empowered me to flourish.
By the end of my contract, I was truly thriving. I was speaking comfortably in front of joint cohorts of 80-plus students. Teaching behavior change to people as hungry to learn it as I was to teach it. Co-leading coaching skills lessons. Running group breakout activities. Even building new operational systems for the course and managing a group of expert mentors behind the scenes (the project-management nerd in me was crushing it too). I was able to bear witness to the immense value I can bring to a team. I saw the influence I had on those around me, and was deeply humbled by the profound gifts others gave to me in return.
What I'm Taking Away
Every student and staff member I worked with reminded me how far people can go when they stop settling for what’s comfortable and choose to be challenged instead.
It was in the moments after I felt the least certain where I found the clearest sense of who I am.
Starting a module feeling tongue-tied and shaky, led to an engaging and exciting lecture on neuroscience (yes, I absolutely said exciting and neuroscience in the same sentence). Or when nervously reviewing my notes before a coaching demo, ended in a deeply profound and enlightening session.
That's where I found home in myself.
A deep sense of trust in who I am, and what I’m capable of.
Not in the moments I felt ready or sure, but in the ones where I said yes anyway.
I'm endlessly grateful for UHP’s mission and the people who bring it to life every day. Those six months amongst their team only further ignited my potential and brought me closer to the greatest version of myself.
This is the first of a few reflections I want to write on my time at UHP. More to come (:
