The most challenging aspect of being a single mother of three boys and a college student is time management. Often times, I feel like I have to sacrifice one for the other at the moment. As a mother, I worry about the impact this has on my children and the events that I am missing as I can not attend many of their school functions while I am in school and trying to maintain my 4.0 GPA in my nursing program. However, I know that the sacrifices that I am making now to complete the Associate Degree in Nursing program at Kapiolani Community College will allow me to be able to be financially stable and provide a better life for my boys. Despite the time management issues, I have managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA for the last two semesters of my nursing school program. I have two more semesters to complete and then I am able to attempt the state licensure exam to become a registered nurse. My boys and nursing are my passion. I witnessed firsthand how influential nurses are and the impact that they have on families. My twin boys had to spend several months in the neonatal intensive care unit because they were born prematurely at 28 weeks. My oldest son suffers from asthma. One of the twins has situs inversus, and the other twin has Stage 2 Chronic Kidney Disease. I practically lived in the hospital during this time and was by his side for his next 13 surgeries and numerous other procedures so that he could avoid having to start dialysis or have a kidney transplant. During this time, I fell even more in love with medicine, especially nursing. I would not have been able to get through this difficult time if it was not for the nurses and their compassion. This reignited my passion and drive to go back to school and purse a nursing degree. I want to specialize in pediatric nursing because I want to provide the same care and comfort to other families and their children, like my sons and I received throughout their time in the NICU and even now through the various doctors appointments that my boys still have. Nurses are these amazing people that are able to be by our side to laugh and cheer during the good times and cry right beside us during the difficult times. My future career and my boys are what inspire me to keep going everyday. This scholarship will help me to continue my journey in nursing so that I can become a registered nurse, but also not have to stress as much about how to pay for college while I deal with their medical bills. I plan to continue in my education journey after completing the ADN program and attend University of Hawaii's bridge program from RN to BSN. After which, I plan on getting my Masters in Nursing Education and eventually, a doctorate in nursing practice and become a Pediatric Advanced Practicing Nurse. I know that if I continue on my education journey that I will be able to provide the lifestyle that I want to be able to give my boys. In addition, I hope that my boys see that no matter their circumstances, they can still achieve their dreams.

I always knew that I wanted a career in the medical field; however, I was unable to pursue this option due to the incident that occurred at Virginia Tech in 2007. I needed time away from school to work on my own mental health from the trauma that occurred. Therefore, I put my dreams on hold at the moment and started working at the shipyard, even though I was not passionate about this job. Now, I am a single mother of three boys. Each of my sons have had a unique medical issue over the last six years, especially my two youngest sons that are identical twins. My oldest son has severe asthma, which is a constant battle during the flu/cold season because he is triggered the most during that time, especially this year since he started kindergarten. One of the twins has situs inversus totalis, which makes his organs in his chest and abdomen to be mirrored image, meaning that his heart is on his right side of the body instead of the left. I am so thankful that he has the totalis version of this disease because he does not have any of the secondary medical issues that typically develop because of situs inversus. My other twin son has Stage 2/3 Chronic Kidney Disease due to bilateral obstruction of both ureters that was found via an ultrasound at 14 weeks gestation. At 23 weeks, I flew from Hawaii to California to have fetal surgery performed, in hopes that this would give him the best chance to have functioning kidneys, since there are no fetal surgeons in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the twins were born 28 weeks premature and were required to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after being born. The oldest twin was in the NICU for 66 days until he reached full term; however, my son with the kidney disease was in the NICU for 277 days (roughly 9 months). I practically lived in the hospital during this time and was by his side for his next 13 surgeries and numerous other procedures so that he could avoid having to start dialysis or have a kidney transplant. During this time, I fell even more in love with medicine, especially nursing. I would not have been able to get through this difficult time if it was not for the nurses and their compassion. This reignited my passion and drive to go back to school and purse a nursing degree. I want to specialize in pediatric nursing because I want to provide the same care and comfort to other families and their children, like my sons and I received throughout their time in the NICU and even now through the various doctors appointments that my boys still have. My youngest son's CKD is holding stable at Stage 2, which is a complete miracle from the first diagnosis he was given. My passion is nursing, and my hope is that I can provide the same comfort, support, and empathy to other parents during difficult times. A parent's love for their child is unexplainable, and the fear that we go through when something is wrong with our child, especially when we can not do anything to fix it ourselves, can be completely unbearable at times. However, nurses are these amazing people that are able to be by our side during this time to laugh and cheer during the good times and cry right beside us during the difficult times. As a nurse, I want to give my community the same support that I was given.

I always knew that I wanted a career in the medical field; however, I was unable to pursue this option due to the incident that occurred at Virginia Tech in 2007. I needed time away from school to work on my own mental health from the trauma that occurred. Therefore, I put my dreams on hold at the moment and started working at the shipyard, even though I was not passionate about this job. Now, I am a single mother of three boys. Each of my sons have had a unique medical issue over the last six years, especially my two youngest sons that are identical twins. My oldest son has severe asthma, which is a constant battle during the flu/cold season because he is triggered the most during that time, especially this year since he started kindergarten. One of the twins has situs inversus totalis, which makes his organs in his chest and abdomen to be mirrored image, meaning that his heart is on his right side of the body instead of the left. I am so thankful that he has the totalis version of this disease because he does not have any of the secondary medical issues that typically develop because of situs inversus. My other twin son has Stage 2/3 Chronic Kidney Disease due to bilateral obstruction of both ureters that was found via an ultrasound at 14 weeks gestation. At 23 weeks, I flew from Hawaii to California to have fetal surgery performed, in hopes that this would give him the best chance to have functioning kidneys, since there are no fetal surgeons in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the twins were born 28 weeks premature and were required to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after being born. The oldest twin was in the NICU for 66 days until he reached full term; however, my son with the kidney disease was in the NICU for 277 days (roughly 9 months). I practically lived in the hospital during this time and was by his side for his next 13 surgeries and numerous other procedures so that he could avoid having to start dialysis or have a kidney transplant. During this time, I fell even more in love with medicine, especially nursing. I would not have been able to get through this difficult time if it was not for the nurses and their compassion. This reignited my passion and drive to go back to school and purse a nursing degree. I want to specialize in pediatric nursing because I want to provide the same care and comfort to other families and their children, like my sons and I received throughout their time in the NICU and even now through the various doctors appointments that my boys still have. My youngest son's CKD is holding stable at Stage 2, which is a complete miracle from the first diagnosis he was given. My passion is nursing, and my hope is that I can provide the same comfort, support, and empathy to other parents during difficult times. A parent's love for their child is unexplainable, and the fear that we go through when something is wrong with our child, especially when we can not do anything to fix it ourselves, can be completely unbearable at times. However, nurses are these amazing people that are able to be by our side during this time to laugh and cheer during the good times and cry right beside us during the difficult times. My future career and my boys are what inspire me to keep going everyday.

I always knew that I wanted a career in the medical field; however, I was unable to pursue this option due to the incident that occurred at Virginia Tech in 2007. I needed time away from school to work on my own mental health from the trauma that occurred. Therefore, I put my dreams on hold at the moment and started working at the shipyard, even though I was not passionate about this job. Now, I am a single mother of three boys. Each of my sons have had a unique medical issue over the last six years, especially my two youngest sons that are identical twins. My oldest son has severe asthma, which is a constant battle during the flu/cold season because he is triggered the most during that time, especially this year since he started kindergarten. One of the twins has situs inversus totalis, which makes his organs in his chest and abdomen to be mirrored image, meaning that his heart is on his right side of the body instead of the left. I am so thankful that he has the totalis version of this disease because he does not have any of the secondary medical issues that typically develop because of situs inversus. My other twin son has Stage 2/3 Chronic Kidney Disease due to bilateral obstruction of both ureters that was found via an ultrasound at 14 weeks gestation. At 23 weeks, I flew from Hawaii to California to have fetal surgery performed, in hopes that this would give him the best chance to have functioning kidneys, since there are no fetal surgeons in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the twins were born 28 weeks premature and were required to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) after being born. The oldest twin was in the NICU for 66 days until he reached full term; however, my son with the kidney disease was in the NICU for 277 days (roughly 9 months). I practically lived in the hospital during this time and was by his side for his next 13 surgeries and numerous other procedures so that he could avoid having to start dialysis or have a kidney transplant. During this time, I fell even more in love with medicine, especially nursing. I would not have been able to get through this difficult time if it was not for the nurses and their compassion. This reignited my passion and drive to go back to school and purse a nursing degree. I want to specialize in pediatric nursing because I want to provide the same care and comfort to other families and their children, like my sons and I received throughout their time in the NICU and even now through the various doctors appointments that my boys still have. My youngest son's CKD is holding stable at Stage 2, which is a complete miracle from the first diagnosis he was given. My passion is nursing, and my hope is that I can provide the same comfort, support, and empathy to other parents during difficult times. A parent's love for their child is unexplainable, and the fear that we go through when something is wrong with our child, especially when we can not do anything to fix it ourselves, can be completely unbearable at times. However, nurses are these amazing people that are able to be by our side during this time to laugh and cheer during the good times and cry right beside us during the difficult times. I owe so much to this group of people for helping me and my boys throughout the last 6 years.