Madison Victoria Keith Nursing Scholarship

My handwritten entry in our kindergarten yearbook declared: "When I grow up, I want to be a nurse." I loved the nurses' colorful, playful scrubs and sweet, helpful smiles I saw in picture books. I still want to be a nurse, but the reason is now much more profound. When I was six, I was quickly transferred from a routine checkup at my doctor's office to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, where my panicked parents were told something no parent should ever have to hear: “Your daughter has cancer, Leukemia.” I was confined to the hospital for months at a time, receiving chemotherapy through a peripherally inserted central catheter. The first time a nurse changed the line’s adhesive dressing, a flaming pain shot through my arm. I screamed, kicking my legs wildly. The nurses tried to soothe me, but I was inconsolable. I felt alone; I thought I was the only one with cancer, suffering that pain. But then, a nurse gave me a Chemo Duck, a bright yellow stuffed animal with a PICC line just like mine. I named her after my oncologist, Dr. Breese. I pretended to be Breese’s nurse during my endless treatments, asking for clean syringes and IV lines—so I could administer chemo to my new friend. The nurses always smiled, like the nurses in my picture books, and brought them to me. I felt less alone—and safer. Usually, I felt too nauseous and groggy to get out of bed, but on sporadic, lucky days when I had enough energy to explore, I visited Nurse Beth at the nursing station. She would play Hedbanz to make me giggle. Later, I met Nurse Heather, who brightened my days with comforting hugs. I told my mom, “I want to be a nurse so I can work with Heather when I grow up!” My mom joked that Heather might not be working by then, but I was undeterred. I wanted to be a nurse like the nurses who were watching over me, no matter what. As I got older, my parents encouraged me to take pride in my cancer journey and utilize it to help others. I wanted to do that. With my art therapist, Dr. Jo, I wrote and illustrated my own book, "This Is When I Had A.L.L." After remission, I requested donations to Lucile Packard Hospital for my birthday in lieu of gifts. Most important, I began pursuing a path toward pediatric nursing, inspired by the extraordinary nurses who cared for me. I have excelled in all my high school classes and volunteer weekly at the Kaiser infusion center, comforting patients with blankets and conversation, enjoying cheerful chats with my "regulars"—emulating the passionate, dedicated nurses I assist, falling in love more each day with the whirlwind of their work. Sometimes, my job is pure joy. Tia came weekly for a year to have her PICC line changed. Helping the nurses, I removed the gauzes and grabbed the packages needed to replace the line, conversing with Tia about our respective adventures that week, giggling over funny stories. When her line was finally removed, Tia gave me a beautiful card, thanking me for my care and the delightful talks. I treasure that reminder of a difference I made in a patient's life. Working to become a nurse has helped me overcome my cancer trauma. My journey is a testament to the nurses who inspired me to follow in their footsteps. Like Madison, I hope to use my experience to support other children undergoing something similar. I am overjoyed to fulfill that prophetic scribble in my kindergarten yearbook.

Having the ability to enter the nursing program holds a great amount of significance for me, kindled by my life-altering experience while in a school shooting. November 19th, 2019, a student carried a gun he built himself to school injuring many, but killing two. One of the two was my very best friend Dominic, who I've grown up with since kindergarten. On that day, I would not know my text, "Are you okay," would be my last. Unknowing of his passing, I texted him with blood on my hands and stains of my cries down my cheeks from placing pressure on the wounds of my other friend Addie, both on her abdomen and arm. I was 14. I cried every day feeling guilty for living, overwhelmed by the stream of my thoughts, and scared to face the real world as I was terrified and traumatized. As the years went by, I began to heal with the support of my family and friends, but from that day, I learned that all I wanted to do was help people the same way others were there to help me. In 2021, my junior year, I decided that I wanted to start volunteering at the local hospital. Once I applied, I was immediately assigned to work in the Women and Newborn Center, where I accumulated over 350 hours. I gained abundant hospital experience, where I learned about patient care, charting, organization, and leadership. I made many nurse friends who enlightened me into the world of nursing, and I fell in love. I enjoyed coming into the hospital every week to help out the nurses as much as I could, and accumulated enough experience to start training new volunteers. Throughout my academic High School years, I accrued most of my college credits, and am in the process of finishing the Associates program at College of the Canyons, in less than a year of my entering. I applied to West Coast University, where I will attend next month, June 10th, 2024. Currently, I have been proactively involved in Caregiving, taking care of 4 children, and 1 with severe autism. Throughout it all, my end goal would be to help people, which I can achieve through the nursing program. Overall, I would like to finish my BSN, and hopefully later apply to a master's program, where I can receive a degree to become a Certified Registered Nurse anesthetist.

Hi, my name is Daniela Aguilar. I am a first-generation nursing student. And I have been loving it. I am currently in the second semester of my ADN program, and I just applied to a concurrent BSN program. I am very ambitious. I have big goals and plans for myself. But I always remember to enjoy each day. I have been loving my experiences in this healthcare world. I have experience volunteering for a hospice organization. And I consider myself very blessed to take on that challenge and come out the other end more grateful than ever. I can truly say that experience, those patients, and those families motivated me to go through nursing school even more. Nursing school was always the plan for me, but they gave me the reassurance that this was the field for me. I have a very soft spot for the geriatric population. Many of my peers think of the older population and say "No thank you." I feel like there is a stigma that older generations are mean and too hard to care for. But every time I am caring for someone of old age, I feel so grateful I was able to give them the care that they need. Being able to be the person to brush their teeth, brush their hair, turn them so they don't hurt so much, and laugh with them, is what makes it worth it. Yes, there are tough days, days where I left the facility a little sad cause I got yelled at or felt like I couldn't get through to the patient and make a meaningful impact. But I just remember, they have more years on their belt than I do, I don't know what challenges life threw at them many years ago. I always reflect on my own challenges, and then remember they have most likely experienced that and more. Which is why I do my best to make that day better than the previous. I cannot change their past, but I can help them today and tomorrow. Nursing is a challenging profession. Nursing school alone is a challenge. Having to study hours on end, do unpaid clinical hours, and pay for the schooling itself, is very stressful. But I don't regret it one bit. I know I can and will make a difference to at least one person. And that one person is what I am looking forward to. When that day comes, I won't think about that exam I had last week, or the tuition bill, or the essays. This is why I know for a fact, that nursing is for me. I am not motivated by the pay or even the praise of being a nurse, but it is the feeling I get when I make a difference in someone's day. Making a difference in someone's life is something I can only wish to have the privilege to accomplish.