Martha Galvez Memorial Scholarship

I am a proud daughter of undocumented, hard working, parents. I will become a first generation graduate and the first one in my family to go to college. I was always aware of the difficulties my family had, especially what my parents went through to get to where they are now. One of the biggest problems we had was the language barrier. In Colorado, they didn't have translators in their workplace or provided them for us. Since I remember I have been translating meetings, phone calls, letters and many other things to my parents and I love it because I felt like I was giving back to them after they gave me and my siblings everything they could give us. I'm determined to make a good impact in my Hispanic community especially in Yakima where the majority of the population is Latino. I love the feeling of helping somebody with the same struggles my parents had. That's why I want to become a Registered Nurse, I want to have that one and one connection with my patients and not need a translator. I've already taken a step in being certified as bilingual by taking my seal of Biliteracy in my sophomore year of Highschool. I want to help my community feel understood and comfortable in times of need, so they could receive the best quality care and understand every step of the progress of their care. I won't stop my career there though, my goal is to become a neonatal nurse practitioner so I could make an even bigger impact not just in the latino community but in the whole Yakima Valley. My goal is increasing my knowledge in bilingual medical terms so there is no misinformation between me and my patients. I want new parents to be aware that I'm taking care of them and to be heard in their own native language so they feel comfortable enough to ask me questions and let me support them, especially when their newborns are in critical care. I want to be that support system that they can trust on and feel open to in times of crisis. In health care approximately 25.1 million individuals are in the US that can't read, write, or speak English according to the national community reinvestment coalition. I want to lower those numbers and encourage others to do the same. I want to earn my BSN degree and then in the future my MSN degree to continue to help my family and the latino community and to increase my knowledge in spanish medical terms even though spanish is my native language.

In 2022 I took a leap of faith and decided to invest in my future. I would like to share a couple of examples of myself showing commitment in the past, to convince you that I will be committed to this and will not waste your time or your investment in my future career. First, I completed the “Washington Youth Academy,” which is a boot- camp structured program, which I attended from January 2016 to June 2016. The academy is made up of a 22-week physically intensive residential phase program. When they woke us up at 445am, we had to be productive throughout the day for 16 hours, then we had to be in bed by 845pm and sleep for 8 hours. Additionally, I heard about the Job Corps program while I was attending the WYA, so I looked into it as soon as I got home from that physically intensive program. While I waited to hear from Job Corps, I enrolled myself in to New Horizons alternative school to earn a few credits in the summer 2016 and I even got to attend that school for 5 months before I got the call saying that Job Corps had an opening for me. For those who are not familiar with Job Corps, it is a self-paced usually 24-month-long program that offers free education and vocational training to anyone usually between the ages of 16-24 years old. I attended the Job Corps program from November 15th, 2016, until April 7th, 2018. While I resided there, I took classes toward finishing my high school diploma (since I was still only 17), along with classes toward earning my Medical Assistant certification. My career goal is to work as a Registered Nurse. I’m currently a Medical Assistant, which is what I did as a stepping stone to get experience in healthcare (along with caregiving), and have decided that it is time to explore the field of Nursing now. Healthcare is truly my calling, and now I want to become a nurse to help our community in a different yet more involved and particular way. After I earn and receive my degree I plan to work at our local hospital at Lady of Lourdes and get experience in the emergency room, the med. surgical unit, and in the intensive care unit. Something from my past that I could say aided in my decision to go back to school and become a nurse was my great-grandfather passing away from a cerebral brain bleed back in December 2019, which is the hardest thing I have ever endured in my life. I would like to in any way possible I can, make a patient and their families long hospital stay or even short emergency room stays and experiences, the best I possibly can. Because of my current profession as a Certified Medical Assistant, I can connect with other people in ways that I would never have been able to if I never got into working in the healthcare field. I learned that I could make a difference in people’s lives throughout this community, and I have overall 5 years of experience to show for that. For example, I also volunteered at Grace Clinic during (AND after) my externship (when I find time), these are all things that represent who I am and what I love to do as a person, which is why I know I will make a great nurse one day. I hope that you do consider investing in my dream career of being able to provide healthcare services to our community as a registered nurse.