MariLiis Bateman is a sophomore biological sciences major with a pre-physical therapy emphasis. According to her, God brought he r to Lee with a prayer answered in the 6th grade. “I love seeing God work through my education,” she says. “I love experiencing this during lab, seeing God’s creation through the microscope.” After graduation, she plans to continue her education in pursuit of a doctoral degree and to eventually have her own sports facility complex/physical therapy clinic. She currently owns a small business teaching martial arts at Force Academy. She was also inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame as 2020’s Female Instructor of the Year.