Hobbies and interests
Advocacy And Activism
Anatomy
Anime
Artificial Intelligence
Art
Candle Making
Coding And Computer Science
Comics
Dungeons And Dragons
Cosplay
Gaming
Physiology
Computer Science
Hebrew
Human Rights
Information Technology (IT)
Latin
Magic The Gathering
Manga
Mathematics
Nursing
Reading
Russian
Shopping And Thrifting
Teaching
Witchcraft
Tarot
Travel And Tourism
Reading
Classics
Academic
Education
Novels
Realistic Fiction
Young Adult
Psychology
Science
I read books multiple times per month
Mason Crawford
2,605
Bold Points1x
FinalistMason Crawford
2,605
Bold Points1x
FinalistBio
I started to pursue knowledge for knowledge's sake, then kept going for humanity's sake. I am a nurse, so I know how to help treat problems for humans. I am now educating people on the practical skills needed to become nurses. I am furthering my education while becoming an educator. I learned to speak a few words of several languages to help me connect with people everywhere. My next goal: to learn how to speak computers' language, with a special interest in healthcare informatics and healthcare education.
Education
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Master's degree programMajors:
- Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing
- Education, Other
- Health Professions Education, Ethics, and Humanities
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Master's degree programMajors:
- Business Administration, Management and Operations
Cape Fear Community College
Associate's degree programMajors:
- Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Bachelor's degree programMajors:
- Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing
East Mecklenburg High
High SchoolMiscellaneous
Desired degree level:
Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)
Graduate schools of interest:
Transfer schools of interest:
Majors of interest:
- Health Professions Education, Ethics, and Humanities
- Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas
- Special Education and Teaching
- Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other
- Allied Health and Medical Assisting Services
- Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing
- Medical Illustration and Informatics
- Computer and Information Sciences, General
Career
Dream career field:
Computer Software
Dream career goals:
Nursing Informatics/Education
Math tutor
Cape Fear Community College2016 – 20182 yearsClinical instructor
Cape Fear Community College2022 – Present2 yearsStaff Nurse/Clinical Coordinator
New Hanover Regional Medical Center2020 – 20222 yearsStaff Nurse
New Hanover Regional Medical Center2018 – 20202 years
Sports
Rugby
Club2012 – 20142 years
Arts
- Visual ArtsPresent
- CalligraphyPresent
Public services
Volunteering
Northside Food Co-op — Arts and crafts setup2023 – PresentVolunteering
LGBTQ Center of the Cape Fear Coast — Quilt Docent2020 – 2020
Future Interests
Advocacy
Philanthropy
Entrepreneurship
Climate Conservation Scholarship
How can one individual possibly stop climate change?
I turn off my lights at night. I recycle every single can and bottle I use at home. I participated in the "skip straws, save the turtles" movement. I cut up every plastic holder for every six-pack of cans that I buy--I do not want some poor animal to get stuck inside that plastic ring someday. I live in a 500-square-foot efficiency apartment. I let Google Maps choose the most fuel-efficient route for me, even if it takes me longer to get there as a result. I will walk places if I am able, but my city is set up with public transit that arrives every hour (if that), and with everything so spread apart that it is nearly impossible to get places without a car. I do not use the heat much, if at all, during the winter. My apartment is heated and cooled by a single window unit, without any central air or heat. I use the laundromat instead of buying a large washer and dryer.
I am doing everything I can.
I am comfortable enough.
If I could live off the land and survive, I would choose it. That would certainly reduce my carbon footprint. Unfortunately, society does not have the proper systems in place to let me do this. I would be considered homeless, trying to find a bench to sleep on amidst the hostile architecture. Some of our nation's homeless have even been arrested for erecting tents on public property. I would be under constant threat of having my camp rousted. It is not safe to live this way in today's society. I have to keep engaging in capitalism, performing a constant cost-benefit analysis, trying to choose the path of least destruction. Sometimes I am so tired that I am forced to choose the path of least resistance instead. Every day, I wake up and I try.
But we cannot stop climate change without holding corporations responsible. The corporations are happy letting individuals take the blame, letting us make the sacrifices, while continuing their operations as usual. It is not necessary to look far to find an example. Where are the targets for reduced greenhouse gas emissions? Where are we going to put all those fuel rods sitting in the bottom of nuclear reactors' coolant tanks? What are we going to do if we run out of fossil fuel for our cars? Electric cars finally exist, but they are flashy; impractical for middle- and lower-class people to attain. I do not have a garage. Where would I charge it?
Where are the corporations that try?
@normandiealise #GenWealth Scholarship
To understand generational wealth, I first sought to understand the meaning of each word. I searched my mind for the meaning of a generation. A generation is usually defined as a group of people that were born within a certain timeframe, often thought to share several characteristics. Generational stereotypes abound; results range from complimentary to insulting, or even amusing. A quick Google search will net you such riveting articles as "Why are Millennials killing Applebees?" It leads a wise reader to wonder how useful generational descriptions really are. In its simplest form, a generation means a person's progeny; their offspring, their children. Perhaps I will stick with the most basic definition. I think it fits my perception better.
Wealth, on the other hand, is commonly thought of as monetary and financial gain. Even the picture prompt for this essay shows hands holding piles of cash. I do not think the common perception of wealth is enough to demonstrate what it truly means to me. Wealth means a stockpile of value. Money is not the only thing with value in this world. Of course, monetary wealth is important. It is, or I would not be here, writing this essay so that I might better afford graduate school and ameliorate my debt. It is just that money is not all that I value. I would rather stay poor and gain wisdom. Maybe that is why I keep going back to college. I have some form of hope for the future. I need to make an impact. I do not need to be famous. I just want someone to remember me, someday.
I have met many people, both millennial and generation Z, that scoff at the idea of retirement and social security. Attitudes are jaded. Your mileage may vary. Remember, generational stereotypes abound. I have gotten rather used to the idea that I might never retire, and might be fighting to make ends meet for all of my life. Even if that happens, I would be okay with that. I would rather have some wisdom to pass on to my children, and my children's children. It would be nice to leave them with a little nest egg, a home, a few lucrative shares in the stock market. I hope I can. If that were the case, though, what else does that leave for them? Generational wealth means that I have something to pass on to my descendants. I want to leave them more than money. I want to leave them with the impression that they can change the world. I want to be remembered for believing that I can do so.
Elizabeth Schalk Memorial Scholarship
I grew up with parents that believed mental illness was not a real illness. I was made to feel like my intelligence was all I had. I was labeled a "gifted kid." When I was seven years old, I came home crying because I was so bored with reading the same book over and over during free reading time. i was not interested in the book's subject matter. I was only interested in the Harry Potter books that year, but I could not talk about them with my classmates, because the subject material was deemed "inappropriate". I was miserable. Not being able to discuss my interests made it feel like I could not enjoy my life.
Subsequently, my parents fought to get me placed in a higher-level English Language Arts class. I was told my talents were in English and reading, and nothing else. I was better at languages than mathematics, but I wanted so badly to practice skills in other areas. Nonetheless, I moved to the fourth-grade English class that year. My parents refused to allow me to fully skip a grade because they did not believe my skills in other subjects could match up. My social and communication deficits were ignored or chalked up to personal quirks, but the grade mismatch made them worse. A school psychologist evaluated me in my classroom. She wrote that I "avoided eye contact" and "acted shy." Her report does not show that she found anything strange about my behavior, even though I also did not think about blowing my nose until she handed me a tissue.
Later that year, I discovered hand sanitizer. I loved to clean my hands over and over, remembering that I had been taught it would kill all of the germs. It was a repetitive behavior that I loved performing. I was not allowed to engage in my favorite repetitive behaviors, though. My mother told me "stop acting like that, or you're going to get put on a medication that makes you stupid." My father had depression when he was younger, he told me, but he "cured" it using mindfulness and meditation. I am skeptical about his explanation. Most people with mental illness deal with it for the rest of their life--unless they were misdiagnosed. I was told by various therapists and professionals over the years that I suffered from depression, dysthymia, anxiety, OCD tendencies, BPD tendencies, and yet none of them could label what was happening with me in a way that helped me function better in my life.
At the age of 26, I was first diagnosed with ADHD and later level 1 autism. Properly speaking, I have two neurobiological disorders. They most likely masked one another during my upbringing. It has been about one year since then, and I am still trying to pick up the pieces. It is hard to tell who I am underneath the mask. I studied other people's behaviors to try and mimic them as closely as possible, but I always felt like there was something different with me. I became aware that my reading talents were due to hyperlexia. I avoided eye contact as a child because it was painful. I later trained myself to stare at the bridge of people's noses to simulate eye contact, and got a little too good at it. Now, I have to stop looking "into people's eyes" as much, or it makes them feel uncomfortable. During conversations, I am forever thinking about striking that balance, unless I am wearing sunglasses outdoors.
I always wear sunglasses outdoors.
Act Locally Scholarship
Share Your Poetry Scholarship
closed borders
HELLO and
welcome to the
border-blockade
new-cold-war-2022
fear-mongering
gay-propaganda-machine!
and I?
I'll be your tour guide
to our little corner
of the world wide web.
no media coverage today:
my personal FBI agent cries
tears of joy
tears of laughter
over
Russian-American
sanctioned love
gone are the days of
mail-order brides
and besides,
I'd asked for a husband.
being gay won't get you killed
outside Chechnya
but it will
ostracize
you
the border isn't closed,
they say,
but no plane will fly
into dead airspace.
the embassy is gone,
that's closed.
TRAVEL ADVISORY
DO NOT TRAVEL
AND LEAVE
IMMEDIATELY.
internet's censored, kid
use your VPNs wisely
and hop onto Telegram--
it's not shut down yet--
we wanted to watch
a movie together
it's blocked
forget it
his letter, it
reached me!
but USPS has
probably thrown
mine in the trash
by now.
even if it reaches
my lover,
it gets tossed away
as part of the gay-
propaganda-machine.
so i send little comforts
candy and sweets,
perhaps
carefully inspected
electronics
no message
no words
wheredidthewordsgo
boy 1
can't speak
English out loud
where they can
hear him.
boy 2
can't speak
Russian out loud
or they will
call him
un-American.
typed words live
in the internet
in our kingdom
of two in
today's
new-cold-war-2022.
Analtha Parr Pell Memorial Scholarship
I have always felt called to the area where I could "do the most good." I initially wanted to become a physician, but I had to change my mind. During my undergraduate studies, I grew frustrated with the amount of time it would take before I could see patients. I took a break from four-year university and headed to community college, wishing that I had taken that path in the first place. After finishing my associate's degree, though, I resolved to return and finish my bachelor's degree. I found a way to attend school online while I worked full-time as a new graduate nurse.
My commitment to education had not faded, but I found a way to see patients sooner. Somehow, though, I was not satisfied. I wanted to do more, to be more. I returned to obtain my master's degree in business administration while training and picking up shifts as a clinical coordinator and house supervisor. I wanted to try my hand at becoming a charge nurse, but that role did not exist at the hospital where I was working. What else was there to do but enter supervision at the ripe old age of twenty-five?
One day, all that training and education led me back to the bedside. I found that I missed working with the patients and connecting with them. And yet--I did not want "less." One day, a former instructor covered a clinical group from my former school in my practice setting. She told me she was impressed by how much I had learned about nursing in the time since my graduation. I took her words at face value and accepted her invitation to teach at my former school. I re-enrolled in graduate school, focusing on nursing education.
I chose to enter the field of nursing education because I still can see patients and participate in patient care. I can show student nurses what it means to advocate for their patients and become technical experts in skills. I am now a clinical instructor. Honestly, I could not be happier, except--I wish I could see them through the whole program. I am going to need to finish that second master's degree to be able to do it. I am motivated, true, but I can only work as a part-time instructor right now. Even though I am working for two programs--practical nursing and associate degree nursing--it is getting difficult to make ends meet. A scholarship would be truly a gift to help me continue finding my calling within nursing work.