Meet our 2018 P.A.C.E. to Success Scholarship recipients, Lacie Reader and Anaya Rice! These two scholars are amazing students with bright futures!! Each will receive a $500 scholarship from the Emmary Butler Foundation in the fall. Read their award winning essays below!
Lacie Reader, North Side High School Senior
I finally set a future goal for myself. It has been a long process, from jumping from wanting to be a veterinarian to an astronaut, and just about every other job in between. I now know that at the end of the road, each step will have been very well worth it. I never really thought about how my own life experiences would really reflect on what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I aspire to be a nurse.
I believe what had really had the most influence on how I came to my conclusion on what I wanted to be had to do with my medical problems. Starting in middle school I started getting hurt and was just in pain all the time. The doctors blamed growing pains and that I was involved in soccer, volleyball, and dance. I knew that wasn't it though, I have always been active. I knew something was wrong. What felt like hundreds of doctor's appointments, specialists and tests later, I was finally diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. After my diagnosis I attended many more appointments and had tests performed. I struggled a lot after my diagnosis, my whole life style was in for a change. I had to give up sports and dance, change eating habits, and attend physical therapy. My symptoms flared up my junior year and I missed a lot of school. I never gave up though, no matter how many times I wanted to. What I never really noticed until about a year ago was the influence on everyone who was involved in my life, like the doctors and nurses. I walked into appointments dreading needles and more bad news, but I never walked out without a smile on my face. I grew attachments to those nurses, the ones who smiled and asked me how I was doing. Their existence was crucial to my strength.
This scholarship will benefit me by being able to purchase a set of books or putting it towards my tuition. This scholarship allows me one less stress of trying to think of how I will need to come up with ways to pay for school. Receiving this scholarship will make me push myself even harder. This scholarship will allow me to be one step further of meeting my goal!
Now I am in the best health I have been in in years. I am planning on attending the University of Saint Francis this fall to major in nursing. But I have been so dedicated that I started taking college courses on campus there this year, and after summer I will be a year ahead. I will get to graduate in 2021 because I am on track for their BSN- 3 Year Honors Track. I have dedicated hours of studying and learning so that I can continue to strive until I meet my goal. So that I can be one of the nurses that changed my life and hope to change someone else's.
Anaya Rice, North Side High School Senior
"Nurses dispense comfort, compassion, caring without even a prescription." - Val Saintsbury
This quote has such a powerful meaning behind it. Everyone that becomes a nurse must have a passion for helping others. It's not just about prescribing medicine or even doing an annual checkup. Sometimes it's about the affection, your act of kindness, or simply just your love for helping someone in need. For these reasons, I aspire to become a Nurse Midwife.
A Nurse Midwife is now commonly referred to as a Certified Nurse Midwife. CNM's is an advanced practice registered nurse, who specializes in primary and reproductive care for women and their babies. CNM's work alongside OB/GYN physicians, providing care for women across their lifespan, including pregnancy and postpartum period, and birth control. CNM's scope of practice also includes gynecological and breast exams, sexually transmitted diseases, and family planning. Many have spent long hours standing and putting in a tremendous amount of help in patient care. The duties of a nurse's midwife are never ending. There are countless nights where the midwife would have to be on call 24/7 to provide the help for their patient in need. In addition to the training, nurse midwives should have critical thinking, leadership, and communication skills. They must pay close attention to detail, have compassion and be empathetic to others. Being resourceful is a quality trait of theirs. But most importantly, a major quality of theirs is being able to multitask efficiently. CNM's train and practice in hospitals and private practice medical clinics and may also deliver babies in birthing centers and attend at home births. Also, they can prescribe medications, treatments, medical devices, therapeutic and diagnostic measures.
Pursuing this further, I'm so interested in how the female body works. Why not spend the rest of my life studying to fulfill my interest in this field? I will gain a great education about women's health when I go to college for nursing in this profession. Throughout my high school years, I have already taken classes such as; biology I &II, anatomy, and psychology. I take interest in these classes because they have relevance to the human body, life, and mind which all play a major role in my career of choice. I think I could really be good at this job because I have a passion for helping others. College has always been a major aspiration of mine. I made the decision that I want to go to college to further my education. I believe by choosing college, it will give me great opportunities for a higher standard of living through my career of helping others and doing what I love. This scholarship would be something great for me and open a door for many opportunities in the future.
In conclusion, being raised in a single parent home, I have had to face many obstacles. Watching my mother work hard and my grandmother having a huge impact in my life, gave me the willpower to work hard and push myself to be the first in my immediate family to go to college. These amazing women in my life have always been an inspiration. I believe this scholarship will help me in many ways. If I were able to receive this scholarship, this will be a great opportunity to gain an abundant amount of knowledge in women's healthcare, later leading me to start my career of becoming a Nurse midwife. Thank you for the opportunity to express my aspirations for this field.