As a young girl in the 1950's my family lived in an apartment on Delmar boulevard. I attended Hamilton grade school through second grade. When I was 8 years old our family moved to the northern section of University City. So, I have been familiar with north county for a long time.
I recall watching the myriad of "news" stories about Ferguson Missouri and the Michael Brown shooting during August of 2014. The feelings I had were very similar to those I experienced during 9/11. I felt shock and disbelief over what was occurring in our community. Watching the news stories over and over caused me to feel much sorrow and helplessness.
I have enjoyed a successful 40 year career in professional nursing as an educator, administrator and author of leading nursing textbooks. My focus as a professional nurse has been to improve the quality of health care provided by nurses. This is accomplished through offering access to quality nursing education.
The health care system is in a crisis with respect to the nursing shortage. This is the result of an aging workforce, workplace demands, high cost of education and the after effects of the pandemic. It is estimated that an average of over 190,000 nurses are needed annually in the US. Today, most students graduating from nursing programs have considerable debt as tuition costs rise.
Following the events in Ferguson, I kept asking myself how might I be able to help. What could I do to try to make a difference?
The answer was establishing the Nurses for Ferguson scholarship for promising high school graduates wishing to become professional nurses. Since increasing the size of the scholarship in 2019, there have been significantly more applicants and more scholarship awards.
To date, over $100,000 has been awarded to students attending schools such as the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Maryville University, Rockhurst University, Southeast Missouri State University, and St. Louis Community College. .