Oklahoma Girl Overcomes Adversity, Awarded Scholarship to OU

With the wind blowing in her hair, her eyes watering, and a live, nationally-televised NBC Today Show audience watching, Katelyn Wilbanks received a plaque that detailed everything she had ever dreamed and more. The look on her face was of astonishment. She couldn’t believe it. She was going to the University of Oklahoma on a full-scholarship, something she had wanted for most her life.

Growing up an OU fan – she watched OU football, basketball and baseball games with her grandfather when she was a child – Katelyn had long liked the Sooners. It wasn’t the sports teams, however, that made Katelyn’s love for the university truly bloom. It’s what the university had already done for her, and what it could allow her to do for others.

When just an infant, Katelyn had been diagnosed with spina bifida, a disease that causes the spinal column to be imperfectly closed so that part of it protrudes, often resulting in physical and neurological disorders. Doctors said Katelyn wouldn’t walk, had the possibility of being brain dead, and would probably die at a young age.

Katelyn went through extreme treatment and therapy, slowly losing every toe off her left foot, and eventually having her left leg amputated. She had 58 surgeries, and many of those surgeries were conducted at the OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City.

She fought through the adversity, overcoming the doctors’ prognosis, and even overcoming the loss of her left leg. She now has a prosthetic leg from which she can walk, cheerlead, and even jump on trampolines.

From her experiences, she developed a passion for medicine and decided she would like to one day be a doctor and help others with her disease. She believed that OU’s medical school would be a perfect fit for her wishes.

The only problem was money. Affording college, let alone medical school, was not going to be an easy task.

Her father, Dale Turner, and mother, Tracy Turner, worked hard to support and raise Katelyn and her siblings, 12-year-old Michelle and 11-year-old Christopher, but lacked the funds to put Katelyn through college.

“It’s been very financially hard,” Tracy Turner said. “With a spina bifida child, it’s difficult to hold a job. You have to be with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Katelyn had hoped she could get a scholarship for cheerleading or academics, but even then it would have been more likely to receive a partial scholarship than a full-ride scholarship.

NBC’s Today Show and the University of Oklahoma made that dream come alive recently during the morning program’s Christmas in July series. Following months of planning and with a contingent of the OU Pride Marching Band playing “Boomer Sooner” in the background in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza, OU President David Boren join Today show hosts Matt Lauer and Katie Couric to present Katelyn with a the news of her full scholarship. It was a dream realized for a girl who has had an amazing, life-long fight with a deadly disease.

From the low of learning she would have a leg amputated, to receiving a scholarship that paid for her tuition, fees, housing, food and books at her favorite college, Katelyn has had a long journey the past couple of years, but now she couldn’t be happier.

“I want to go to school at OU,” she said. “I want to become a doctor and specialize in spina bifida and try to fix and help the kids; help them see that it’s not so bad.”

Dale Turner said the scholarship it is a testament to the university and the people who work for it.

“We can’t thank the University of Oklahoma enough for making this dream come true,” Turner said.

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