Figure Out What You Want and Then How to Get There with Jono Hooper

This is The Do It For Yourself Podcast.  Each week I sit down with someone who is doing it for themselves and chasing a dream they just couldn’t suppress.  This is often speakers, entrepreneurs, or athletes.  They all share one thing in common, they are overcoming challenges and never giving up.  Someone who is Doing It For Themselves is not selfish in their pursuit, they are simply chasing a dream or working towards a goal because it is something THEY want to do.  They are not forging down a path because society or someone is telling them it’s what they should be doing.

This week my guest is Jono Hooper.  Jono was born in Australia and went through school there.  When it was time to think about college Jono was considering coming to the United States to attend college or university.  Through a school fair, Jono got connected with a guy named Chris Bates who acted as an agent to help students get scholarships to schools in the states for athletics.  Jono was always athletic but running was something that he really stuck with and so this is what he decided to pursue in order to get into a school in the United States.  

Chris went through this process of going to the school in the United State so he uses his knowledge of the process to help athletes do exactly what he did.  Chris is not allowed to be reimbursed by the colleges or universities for his services so this is all paid for by the student-athletes. 

After going through the process Jono decided on a school in a very small town in Iowa.  He knew going in that he was going to a very small school but he picked this school because of the location and price.  Jono had one other school that accepted him but the location just wasn't going to work for him.  

Jono and his mom set up their trip and got ready to come to the United States for his schooling.  The trip to get to Iowa alone was a lot of travel.  They had to travel from Brisbane to Los Angeles and then from Los Angeles to Chicago and from Chicago to Iowa.  Even after all of this travel, Jono knew almost immediately he wanted to transfer out of his school in Iowa.  He knew that eventually, he was going to have to transfer to finish his degree because Indian Wells was a community college but he wanted to speed up the process.  Jono felt as though he had a debt to pay to his coach because the coach took a chance on him so he committed to running for the two seasons that he said he would.

As a college student who is paying their way through school Jono had expenses that he needed to cover just like most college students.  The tricky part for Jono was though, as a student on a visa you are limited on how much you can work while you are here depending on what you want to do after graduation.  Jono had about 10 months in Brisbane before he was coming over to the states so he worked two jobs to sock away as much money as he possibly could.  Once Jono arrived he knew that he needed to live VERY frugal.  After the first year in the states, Jono went through most of the money he had saved and was still only able to work 20 hours per week.

After Jono completed his two seasons of cross country he knew he needed to make a decision about where he was going to go next.  Luckily as part of the program and process with Chris, Jono was still able to use him as a resource to help with this process.  So Chris and Jono began to look into different schools over the country.  Jono met someone who was transferring to Goldey Beacom in Wilmington Delaware.  They have a cross country team and he could complete his degree there so he applied to this school as well.  After having a long conversation with the cross country coach from Goldey Beacom Jono was committed to going to this school to help the coach rebuild the cross country program.  

After finishing his four-year degree Jono went right into a masters program.  Jono is currently working on finishing his law degree.  ono definitely how to overcome many challenges in this journey and I am honored he came on the podcast to share them.

I hope you enjoy this episode.

Jono's Instagram

Do It For Yourself Instagram