NPC Friends and Family is pleased to announce the very first winner of the Doris Reed Nursing and Allied Health Scholarship. Meagan Rogers, a second-year nursing student at the White Mountain Campus in Show Low, will receive $1,000 for the Spring 2021 semester, which will be her last at Northland Pioneer College. Meagan will complete her Associate Degree in Nursing in May, after which she hopes to enter a residency program with Summit Healthcare Regional Medical Center. Inspired by the life-threatening, pre-term birth of her own child, Meagan aspires to earn a master’s degree to become a Certified Midwife or Nurse Practitioner.
Meagan wrote in her scholarship essay of her passion for the chosen field: " I will always remember my first day of nursing education. I was taking the certified nursing assistant class and I truly viewed this class as a make-it -or break-it class. If I couldn't handle nursing assisting, I didn't know that I was cut out to be a nurse. It just so happened that our instructor was out of town and the Dean of Nursing was substituting for her that day. I don't remember a single word she said. What I do remember is that she spoke of the nature of nurses and her love for her career and her patients. She spoke of the trust that is placed in the profession and the compassion needed to care for people when they are most vulnerable. When I heard this lifelong nurse tell me, for the first time, what it really meant to be a nurse I felt my heart truly swell in a way that had never happened to me before when considering a future career. It was cemented in me. It was decided that moment. I wanted to feel the way she made me feel for the rest of my life.” Meagan’s dedication to preparing for her chosen profession is evidenced by the fact that she has maintained a 4.0 grade point average, while working part-time, going to college full-time, and raising four children with her husband, who works two jobs.
The Doris Reed scholarship is particularly important and valuable for NPC’s nursing students. Mrs. Reed’s family, who established the scholarship to honor her fifty-plus years as a registered nurse, wanted the scholarship to go to an academically-talented applicant who was not able to qualify for financial aid. By the time nursing students reach their second year, many who initially did qualify for financial aid have exhausted their eligibility, due to the number of credits they have taken completing prerequisites and first-year classes. Some hold prior degrees and are retooling for healthcare careers. Their prior degrees render them ineligible for financial aid. Still others earn too much money to qualify for financial aid. The latter group are among those who are truly at risk of falling through the cracks, because there is a very narrow gap between having “too much money” to qualify and having enough money to afford a college education. The Doris Reed scholarship will be a tremendous help in taking Megan across the finish line next May. Meagan will use it to pay for lab fees, textbooks to prepare for her licensure exam, software required for her final semester, and gas money to help defray the cost of a round trip of over forty miles to her classes and clinicals.
When she was told about her first scholarship awardee, Mrs. Reed was delighted, noting, “I would like to congratulate her on not giving up on this difficult journey she is on, and I promise she will never be sorry she has chosen this most rewarding of all professions. I am so honored to be a small part of her success!” NPC Friends and Family is delighted to join with Mrs. Reed’s family in celebrating both Meagan Rogers and Doris Reed.
To make a tax-deductible donation, or to learn more about NPC Friends and Family’s scholarships, please contact Executive Director Betsyann Wilson at betsy.wilson@npc.edu or 928-536-6245 or visit www.npcfriendsfamily.org.
