For most high school students, choosing where they go to college is all about the academics, programs, athletics, or a combination of them all. Jess Cooper’s motivation to choose Indiana University was not any of those things.
“I knew that the reason I wanted to go to IU was because of dance marathon,” said Cooper.
This dance marathon, the second largest in the country, holds a bigger connection to Cooper than just raising money for a good cause.
Riley Children’s Hospital, the recipient of every donation made to Indiana University Dance Marathon, was where Cooper received five rounds of aggressive chemotherapy for her cancer.
At fifteen-years-old, while other kids were playing sports or performing in the school musical, Cooper was staying at Riley, being treated for stage four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
“The nurses, the teachers, they are the first people I think of when I think of Riley,” says Cooper, “which is hard when you think of my story and I think of Riley, I’m like ‘Oh I had cancer.’”
Jess with her nurse practitioner, Julie Kiefer.
Jess with her parents at her bell ringing.
Jess with her oncologist, Dr. James Croop.
Yet, those people are what keeps her going throughout the 36 hour event, where participants are awake and active for the majority of that time.
“They continue to inspire and remind me that we’re here for those people that saved us,” said Cooper, after 21 hours without a full nights rest; still energetic and optimistic towards the rest of the weekend.
On July 11th, 2019, when Cooper rang the bell signaling her remission from cancer and her departure from Riley, she knew she had a choice to make.
Jess Cooper ringing the bell at Riley, signifying her entrance into remission from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
“I could use my story and I could just sit and wallow in it or I could inspire other kids and continue to work for them and with them,” she said.
Since her time at Riley, Cooper has been a part of seven dance marathons throughout high school and at Indiana. Not only does the dance marathon give back to the hospital that saved her life, it has also given Cooper friends to last a lifetime.
“Jess doesn’t define herself by what she was diagnosed with,” says her friend and Indiana sophomore Maddie Jeffers, “She defines herself in the way she acts everyday and the way she makes people feel.”
While it is clear that Jess Cooper chose Indiana for IUDM, IUDM and the Indiana community chose her back, her impact flowing throughout the tennis center where the weekend is held.
“People come back to IUDM to see Jess,” said Jeffers, “Someone was sharing their Riley story the other day and just shouted her out on stage because something that she said two years ago made a difference in their life.”
Indiana University Dance Marathon fundraises year round, with their main events being featured in the fall months. The marathon ran through November 10-12th 2023, raising over three million dollars for the kids at Riley Children’s Hospital.
For Jess Cooper, this could only be described in two words.
“Thank you, there is just no other words, there’s not really a word other than that to amount to the gratitude that I owe them.”
