About

Hi everyone! My name is Nikko Leitzel, I am from a small town in Pennsylvania called Ridgway.  It is in the North Western part of the state.  I wrestled and played football in highschool and did fairly well academically.  I then signed with the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown for wrestling in 2007.  I wrestled and attended school there for my first two years, but knee surgery ended my wrestling career last winter.  During spring break of last year I went to Jamaica on a mission trip to a deaf school and it changed my life completely.   After spending time with the children at the deaf school I realized that this is what I was suppost to be doing with my life, so now I am here at wonderful IUP since this is the only school in PA that offers EDHL.

I recently Traveled to Africa on a mission trip. I was there from December 27-January 18. I was in Bong County, which is in Liberia.  It was such an amazing experience.  The culture there is so entirely different than what we have in the U.S. that words can not even do it justice.  It was a real eye opener to how lucky we are and how much we take for granted.  Runing water is one I know that I take for granted very much. After having to take a shower with a bucket and dirty water for three weeks I began to realize how nice it is when you can simply turn a knob and use as much hot water as you want.

I like to think that I am a very easy person to get along.  I am usauly the one that cracks a joke in a stone cold serious conversation, which has gotten me into trouble from time to time.  Since I travel alot, I am really good at making new friends, even though they might not want me to be.  I  am independent and self motivated, I just don’t get motivated very easily.  My worst trait is Procrastination.  I am actually a part of the definition in Websters look it up.

Soni and I in Africa