David L. Burns Memorial Scholarship

My name is Tiarra Davis, and I am an incoming nursing student at Arkansas State University—Jonesboro. I was born and raised in rural Missouri. Where I live, many people struggle with drug abuse. Members of my own family were not immune to this epidemic, and I witnessed its effect on their well-being at a very early age. My desire to pursue nursing is deeply personal. While drug abuse and addiction have affected many members of my family, it especially affected my aunt Moe. She had many mental health struggles that led her to use for comfort. Throughout much of my early teens, I remember seeing her struggles up close. I knew she wanted a way out. She tried her hardest in rehab facilities time and time again, but our community was not the most supportive when it came to recovery. Unfortunately, in March of 2018, she passed away, while incarcerated for drug possession, from a treatable heart condition. The condition went unnoticed for years and years. Her addiction prevented her from seeking routine medical care, and years of drug use further worsened her heart condition. A condition that could have been treated, if caught earlier, contributed to her death. Losing my aunt completely altered the way I view addiction and mental health. I learned more of her childhood and early adulthood that may have led her to this path. I learned about the stories of other people in my community and how arduous the path of recovery is. I have come to understand how deeply mental health, substance use, and access to healthcare can intersect. I often wonder whether my aunt would still be here if she had received the mental health support she needed earlier in her life. Her experience has given me a deeper sense of empathy for people struggling with addiction and mental health conditions and has inspired my interest in psychiatric nursing. I am drawn to nursing because it combines my passion for direct patient care, education, and advocacy. Nurses have the opportunity to spend significant time with patients, recognize changes in their condition, listen to their concerns, and communicate their needs to the healthcare team. Most importantly, nurses can be a patient’s voice when they feel unable to advocate for themselves. I want to become the kind of nurse who looks beyond a diagnosis or behavior and takes the time to understand the person behind it. My goal is to work in psychiatric care — no matter if it is inpatient or outpatient. I hope my experience can make patients seeking treatment feel more comfortable. My aunt’s story reminds me that mental and physical health cannot be separated, and that early intervention can sometimes make the difference between life and death. I think our community’s current attitude towards those struggling with addiction tends to turn people away from seeking help. I want to be a part of the people who remain empathetic and empower those struggling with addiction to continue their fight. I want to be a core member of their support team. My education at Arkansas State University will give me the knowledge and clinical skills necessary to become a safe and effective nurse. Also, I hope to use that education for more than treating illness. I want to advocate for my patients, educate them, and help them feel comfortable seeking care before their problems become crises. My journey began in rural Missouri and was shaped by both my professional experiences and the loss of someone I loved. Through nursing, I hope to turn those experiences into compassion, advocacy, and meaningful care for others.

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.