David L. Burns Memorial Scholarship

Growing up, addiction was not something I read about in a textbook—it was something I lived through. My brother struggled with addiction, and watching someone you love lose themselves is both heartbreaking and frightening. It creates a constant sense of uncertainty in a home, where you are always wondering what will happen next. Those early experiences shaped my understanding of how deeply addiction affects not only the individual, but everyone around them. They also planted the first seeds of my desire to help others who are walking that same difficult path. My stepfather’s story had an even greater impact on me. His addiction began the way many do—with a prescription. After a serious accident, he was prescribed OxyContin to manage his pain. What started as legitimate treatment slowly turned into dependence. I was only thirteen years old when I found myself helping care for him while my mom worked. He was in constant pain, unable to sleep or move comfortably, and often irritable. I did not fully understand addiction at the time, but I understood suffering. I saw how pain—both physical and emotional—can consume a person. As time went on, his health declined further when he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The combination of chronic pain, depression, and addiction created a situation that felt overwhelming and, at times, hopeless. Eventually, he overdosed. He had signed a Do Not Resuscitate order weeks prior, and there was nothing that could be done. Losing him in that way left a lasting mark on me. It showed me how addiction can intertwine with illness and mental health, and how easily people can fall through the cracks when they are not fully supported or understood. These experiences are why helping those struggling with addiction is deeply important to me. I have seen firsthand how stigma, lack of education, and limited access to care can worsen someone’s situation. Addiction is not simply a matter of poor choices; it is a complex condition influenced by pain, trauma, mental health, and environment. People who are struggling deserve compassion, patience, and proper medical care—not judgment. I want to be someone who sees the whole person, not just their addiction. Today, I work in psychiatric care at a rural hospital in Moberly, Missouri. In this role, I interact with individuals facing mental health challenges, substance use disorders, and crises. Working in a rural setting has opened my eyes to the gaps in resources and the barriers many patients face when trying to get help. I have seen patients who want to recover but do not know where to turn, and others who have been misunderstood or dismissed. These experiences have strengthened my commitment to becoming a nurse who advocates for vulnerable populations. As a nurse, I plan to use my career to provide holistic and compassionate care to individuals struggling with addiction. I want to be part of a healthcare system that treats addiction as a medical condition, integrating physical care with mental health support. I will focus on building trust with my patients, educating them about their options, and connecting them with resources that support long-term recovery. I also hope to advocate for responsible prescribing practices and early intervention whenever possible. Ultimately, my goal is to turn my personal experiences into purpose. I cannot change what happened to my brother or my stepfather, but I can use those experiences to help others feel seen, supported, and valued. Nursing will allow me to combine compassion with clinical skill to make a meaningful difference in lives affected by addiction every day.

Addiction nearly stole everything from me — my health, my family, my future. For 15 years, I battled substance use and the mental health challenges that come with it. I lost my brother and several close friends to addiction, and I’ve seen firsthand how deeply it can tear apart lives and communities. But through years of hard work, support, and grace, I’ve been clean for five years. That experience changed me forever, and today, helping others who struggle with addiction is not just my calling — it’s my purpose. I currently serve as a certified peer support specialist, working with individuals who are navigating their own recovery journeys. I’ve worked with drug court, probation and parole, family court, and now serve with the mobile crisis team and 988 hotline through Burrell Behavioral Health. Every day, I bring hope and lived experience into spaces where people often feel unseen, misunderstood, or judged. I know what it feels like to be there — to be hopeless, to believe change is impossible. And I also know what it feels like to be supported, to have someone believe in me until I could believe in myself. That’s the kind of support I now give to others. Helping people overcome addiction is deeply personal to me. When someone shares their pain, their story, their desire to change, I see a piece of myself in them. I never want another person to feel alone in their battle. I want them to know that healing is possible — not just survival, but full, meaningful recovery. That’s why this work matters so much to me. I’m currently pursuing my bachelor’s degree in psychology at Columbia College. My long-term goal is to earn my master’s degree and become a licensed therapist, specializing in addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders. I want to combine my lived experience with clinical training so I can provide comprehensive support to people in recovery. I want to be able to meet people wherever they are — whether in crisis, in early recovery, or years into sobriety — and offer tools, therapy, and encouragement that meet their unique needs. Addiction doesn’t discriminate — it affects people from all walks of life. But with the right support and access to care, recovery is possible. I’ve lived that truth, and I’m committed to using my life and my career to share it. Every person I help is a reminder of why I’m here and why this path matters. If I can be even a small part of someone’s transformation — the way others were for me — then every hardship I went through will have had a purpose. This scholarship will help me continue my education and expand my ability to serve others. I believe healing is contagious, and with the right training and heart, I can help spread it — one life at a time.

I have dealt with addiction my entire life. Most of my cousins are on the streets, homeless, addicted to heroin, methamphetamine, crack cocaine, opioids, or some combination of these and more. I have watched them from a young child turn from family members I relished memories of playing the GameBoy and watching cartoons on our grandparent's couch after school into ghosts of what they once were. They all started families young with other people addicted to drugs and this led to them throwing away the lives of a future generation of children who won’t know true innocence or a real family. When I was two years old my parents divorced and my brother and myself were in between split households for the majority of our childhood. My father was an abusive alcoholic and continued to be until I was seventeen years old and when he kicked me out of the house one night after he came home from the bar intoxicated. I jumped from couch to couch until I landed at my mother's for the remainder of my short-lived, covid plagued, senior year. I raised myself and built up my life from rock bottom. My interest in health care started when I watched my mother start her dream as a nurse at forty-five years old after she retired from the Army. I saw what she did and listened to the stories she told me about her experiences joining the medical field. I started working at Mosaic Life Care about a year and a half ago as a PCA. Working virtually on the bottom of the food chain I have an appreciation for what LPNs, RNs, MDs, Analysts, Financial services, and various other positions I work with on a day-to-day basis that makes Mosaic, as a whole, run smoothly and efficiently. My position has lent me the opportunity to see quite a lot on the floor as Saint Joseph has a large percentage of drug addiction and drug-related crimes. As a person who has been around and has personally experienced addiction of all kinds I always strive to talk to my patients who fall in this category and connect with them on a personal and professional basis. With coming into the nursing program I look to the future on how I can best guide and help people who don’t have a support system or who may have one but just need a helping hand and ears to listen. I am going to use my degree after I graduate as a tool to use what I have to help people who oftentimes think they don’t need help or who can’t help themselves as they are blinded by the pains and pleasures of addiction. This essay is not written with just the purpose of receiving a scholarship, I would rather speak from the heart than speak as a robot who just wants someone to pay for their college. Regardless of whether I am chosen as the winner or not I want to thank you for the opportunity of consideration. This topic is near and dear to my self and who I am today and I will continue to currently help others in all walks of life and look forward to having my nursing degree so I can help patients with addiction in much more depth than before.