I fully support the Ford Scholar Alumni Association’s mission to promote ongoing stewardship and leadership by scholarship recipients. While we ought all strive to be lifelong learners, few of us desire to make education our chief aim. We enter school with a broader vision for ourselves and the communities that we inhabit: that by obtaining an education, we are better equipped to enact real change.
I have served on numerous boards and have been involved with professional organizations in various capacities such as student representative with Sigma Theta Tau nursing honor society and vice president and delegate for the Oregon Student Nurses’ Association. I am currently a nursing instructor for a university, so I understand the unique needs and challenges that new scholars face.
When I was a fledgling nursing student and new recipient of the Ford Opportunity Scholarship, I was so overwhelmed with my studies and life commitments that I never fully utilized the myriad resources and supports offered to me through FSAA. I would love to reach out to new scholars in a mentorship or ambassador capacity to help them navigate those difficult first months of balancing school and family, ensuring that they understand FSAA’s role in their support system.
I have been an unofficial ambassador for FSAA for many years and would love to formalize that relationship for the sake of raising greater awareness of their endeavors to promote education, professional excellence, leadership, stewardship, and benevolence. I take the responsibility to serve scholars and fellow board members seriously, because I believe in the work that FSAA is doing.