Caring donors like you are the foundation upon which our students will build meaningful careers and make significant contributions to the healthcare profession. Your support makes it possible for us to award scholarships every year to outstanding students.
We'd like you to meet two of this year's IU School of Nursing Bloomington scholarship winners.
During the academic year, Akron, IN’s Jada Hicks was awarded the Linda and Duanne Thiel Memorial Scholarship, established by IU graduate, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and retired Army veteran, Dr. John Thiel.
The scholarship is awarded annually to an IU School of Nursing Bloomington (IUSON BL) student who demonstrates a special interest in memory care. You can read more about Dr. Thiel and his scholarship here.
Says Jada, a first-year nursing student at IUSON BL: “I have wanted to be a nurse for as long as I can remember. I have always been passionate about helping others, which resulted in my family members and friends always telling me that I would make a great nurse, so that is exactly what I am going to do!
“My dreams of being a nurse became solidified after becoming a CNA at age 16 and realizing the love that I truly have for the health care profession. Following this, my great grandmother, who was the most important person in my life, became very sick with lung cancer. Throughout this time, I was able to help my mom, cousin, and grandmother care for my great grandmother, who not only had lung cancer, but dementia as well. Between caring for my great grandmother and my residents, my love for memory care grew, along with my passion to become a nurse.
“After graduation, I plan on becoming a neonatal intensive care unit nurse or labor and delivery nurse. As much as I love memory care and caring for the elderly, my dream has always been to be a nurse for babies, as I have always loved caring for the babies in my family and always have a special connection with them.
“Thank you, Dr. Thiel!”
“I am the daughter” she continues, “of an amazing, kind, and hard-working single mother of four, who taught me to be independent and to work for everything I have. As a result, I have been working and going to school since I was 15 years old. The Linda & Duanne Thiel Memorial Scholarship will help me achieve my goals by allowing me to focus on my education and worry less about financial issues. Thank you, Dr. Thiel!
“Something I would like The Nursing News’ readers to know about me is that my biggest inspiration in life has been the love and care I have received from the village that helped raise me, including my mother, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, and many others. Along with them, I am immensely grateful for my siblings, friends, and boyfriend who have all supported me along this journey. But, most importantly, I give all glory to God and would not be where I am without Him.”
Continuing our look back at the academic year's scholarship winners, congratulations to Huntingburg, IN’s Francisca Rivas on receiving the 2022–2023 Dr. Joyce Splann Krothe Nursing Scholarship.
“Going to college has always meant a lot to me,” says Francisca, “especially as a child of immigrants. As an undergrad, I started off in pre-nursing but continued to explore my options. I ended up majoring in criminal justice but took many science prerequisites because I knew that, eventually, I wanted to pursue something in the medical field. As a result, after graduation, I enrolled in IUSON BL’s second-degree accelerated program. I am hoping to go to nurse practitioner school with a long-term interest of specializing in surgery.”
“I do a lot of work in the community,” she continues, “especially with our local Latino population, volunteering and translating at a variety of events. For the Latino population, there are many issues in health care – such as language barriers, lack of representation, and cultural awareness – and I saw the gap and the need for representation in the medical field. I have a strong passion for providing service to others, and this is a field that does just that! As a Latina nurse, I hope to make a positive difference in the field and encourage other Latino students to enter the field as well.”
Francisca is the daughter of "a single parent working-class mom, and I am currently working to support myself. Thankfully, Dr. Krothe’s scholarship has helped ease some of that burden and was used for tuition,” she says.
Francisca’s scholarship was established by IUSON Professor Emerita Dr. Joyce Splann Krothe and is awarded to an IUSON Bloomington student who, like Joyce herself, is a first-generation college student. You can read more about Dr. Krothe and her scholarship here.
Congratulations to Jada and Francisca! We know that you're both going to accomplish great things in the nursing profession.
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