1. I am Grace Thompson, a student-athlete at Hardin-Simmons University, studying the HSU School of Nursing BSN program and playing softball. Currently, I am living two of my greatest dreams, being a college athlete and excelling in academics towards a degree I am passionate about. I didn’t always know I would be a nursing major, but I have always had an affinity towards helping people. This trait I assume I get from my mom, who I would describe as a ray of sunshine. In my friendships throughout my childhood, I’ve had an affinity towards making people laugh and assuring that everyone felt happy and included. I also am heavy into sports, striving to be the strongest, quickest, most precise athlete I can be. This is where I developed my intense work ethic and dedication to becoming the best I can be. One day soon, I hope to combine all of the lessons I’ve learned in school and on the field develop into the type of healthcare professional that can connect with patients beyond a superficial level, hopefully as a Nurse Practitioner. 2. Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another by the Oxford Languages, and I would agree that this is what empathy means to me. Empathy is looking at someone’s situation and not making negative assumptions about how they got there, judging them or ridiculing them. Empathy is saying, “This is where they are, and that must be hard.” Secondary, empathy directly correlates to compassion, for me at least. “What can I do to help this person or understand how their situation is dictating their life?” This way of thinking is essential for any healthcare worker to provide excellent care for their patients. It is natural to biases, but unacceptable to recognize these biases and continue to allow them to influence patient care. In nursing school, and in life, I’ve run into scenarios where I caught myself holding unfair assumptions or biases towards people I’ve met. However, as I got to know these people better, I realized how mistaken I was to assume such things from them during the first impression. I felt regret and used those memories to set a higher standard for myself in the future of my nursing career. I do not want to make these mistakes again, for I truly believe that it is unfair to judge a person based on whether they’ve lived their lives exactly how you would’ve told them to. As a nurse, I aspire to treat all patients kindly, non-judgmentally, and from a place of respect, working together towards the same common goal. This is, in fact, represented in the mission of the nursing program I attend, exemplifying one of the reasons why I appreciate this program so greatly: “The Hardin-Simmons University School of Nursing is dedicated to providing excellence in nursing education enlightened by Christian faith, values, and service to individuals, families, and communities through nurturing the mind, body, and spirit.” While my program is engraining these values in my education, I hold myself accountable to these same values in my personal life. As a follower of Christ, every day I learn more and more what it means to love like Jesus. I get the opportunity to serve others and offer a healing hand to them when they need it most. What a privilege that is, to be the person there for others when they can’t help themselves. I felt experienced firsthand the power of praying and genuine, humble relationships with healthcare workers when I was a patient myself. To achieve the greatest care for me in my mind, my surgeon put himself in my shoes, was able to relate to me and created a solution that benefited me holistically. This experience has stuck with me greatly and is my foundation for how to approach patient interactions in my future as a healthcare worker.

For 17 years, softball has been the sun my world revolves around. As long as I can remember, I’ve been infatuated with the sport. My free time as a kid consisted of throwing a ball against the house and begging my dad to build a batting cage in the backyard, which he did. After tournament days, 12 hours of games, my entire body and uniform would be encrusted with dirt. The weekend would be so tiring, but I couldn’t wait to do it again the next weekend. And the best part, I got to play the game I loved with all my best friends. Softball impacted my life in many amazing ways, including how it brought me some of my closest friends and continues to this day. Currently, I play softball at Hardin-Simmons, a division III private university in Abilene, Texas. I’m in my fourth season of five, after redshirting from a severe injury my sophomore year. As a freshman, I took any role the coach would offer me, eager to play, from pinch runner to left fielder. My second season, the catastrophic injury to my left shoulder in preseason resulted in surgery and being out for the remainder of the year. This injury not only provoked my own personal growth, but also further flamed the fire of my passion to play the game. Junior year I came back strong and earned the starting position at second base. I had a good season, receiving the award of Second Team All-Conference Second Baseman and being the coach appointed “Road Runner” for stolen bases. Now, I am using that success to set the standard for myself even higher this year and the next. Hopefully, this season the Hardin-Simmons Cowgirls will be deep in the playoffs, and I’ll be hitting at least .400. However, many of my goals aspire aside from just performance. As an upperclassman, I’ve made efforts to be the kind of leader on the team I wished we had when I was a freshman. Someone who is encouraging, holds the team to high standards, works hard, and leads by example. Getting voted in as the team appointed captain this season affirms that I’m succeeding in at least a few of those categories. I believe that changing the culture starts at the top, and that a hypocrite gets none of that done. I want to cultivate values for this team and those ahead that circulate around the before stated qualities, to build a strong team, competitive, national level team. One day when my time with the game is over, I’ll know that it never truly left me. Softball is ingrained in my work ethic, being part of the reason why I work so hard in the gym and in the classroom. It has taught me lessons about failure and recovery, teamwork and perseverance. My time away from the sport during physical therapy helped me realize my identity isn’t in the game and to never take any small moment or great opportunity for granted. Lastly, the people I’ve played on that dirt field with, and spent all those countless hours with on the bus, in the locker room and on random adventures will be my friends for life. So for me, softball has been the greatest blessing I could ever have dreamed of.

I have fallen in love with the field of nursing, so much that even though I haven’t chosen a specialty yet, I know this field is where I will find the perfect career for me. Nursing provides a wide variety of education levels to pursue, as well as versatility within the workstyle itself. I am certain that the experience I will gain on my way to becoming a registered nurse will guide me towards my perfect path in nursing. Beginning in high school, I knew I was passionate about medicine. While learning about the human body, diseases, and healing measures, there was never a class I wanted to miss. When the moment arrived to decide my college major, I was at a standstill. Having only dipped my toes into the huge world of the medical field, I wasn’t sure how to decide on a major or knew what every job entailed. My parents helped me discover nursing, and my grandma, a retired nurse, provided firsthand insight into what being a nurse could be like. Now, as a college senior, I am so grateful to have been put on this path. I’ve investigated what options are available in nursing by observing at a hospital and working at a pain management clinic. Working alongside a nurse practitioner at the clinic has helped me learn more about myself and my interests. I love the idea of building on my education to have a career where I will assess and explain firsthand to patients their diagnosis and treatments options. I want to shine a light on them during their darkest times by being compassionate and making the complicated world of medicine not seem so scary. Beginning in the Hardin-Simmons School of Nursing program in January 2025, my experiences, teachers and classmates have only reaffirmed how I already felt about nursing. This program’s teaching style encompasses what it means to be a servant leader, which is greatly needed in the nursing field. While it wasn’t always easy, my success, interest and enjoyment from the past semester in lecture and clinicals is motivating me even more to continue my journey. I have developed an interest in so many areas, including OR, CRNA, ER and NP, and with an open mind I am ready to take on more clinicals to find the spot I love. Not only would the work be satisfying, but I can also have goals outside of work in this field. There are hospital and clinic settings that allow nurses to have diverse lifestyle choices. When I start my job as a nurse, being in the hustle and bustle of a hospital seems like an exciting and challenging way to begin my career. I want, someday, to settle down, have a family and be a mom. I want to be involved in my kids’ lives the way my parents were, for example by being their sports coach or volunteering to chaperone school field trips. Working in a clinic setting would give me better hours for spending time with my family, there would be holidays off, and overall, it would be more of the right space for me at that point in my life. I think the flexibility of nursing is suitable for the dream I have for my life. Throughout so many phases of my life, nursing has proved to be just the right career for me to pursue. I am excited to work hard to make this dream become a reality.

I am Grace Thompson, BSN student-athlete at the Hardin-Simmons University School of Nursing, with a minor in exercise science. I am a hardworking and passionate softball player here, going into my senior year as a leader on my team, the Cowgirls. Maintaining a 4.0 GPA under these demands is difficult but a determination of mine. Outside of the classroom and the ball field, I am engaged in many extracurriculars. I serve as Vice President of the Student Nurses' Association (SNA), Co-President of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and volunteer during Stampede, the student orientation week, as a group leader and event organizer for the new and incoming students. While my plate is full, the work is very rewarding and I don't regret a second that I spend pouring into my classmates and our school. As a former biology pre-med student turned nursing, I am now in a career I am extremely excited to indulge in. From my first experience in nursing, training in a Certified Nurses' Aid (CNA), I knew that this road was exactly the place for me. Accomplishing the difficult tasks that I did, being responsible for the grunt work in a nursing home, had it's lows. However, hearing the words of gratitude from the patients and seeing their smiles after putting in tedious and meticulous work, was instantly rejuvenating. Even the smallest acts, like braiding a sweet old lady's hair or grabbing her lip balm that had been stashed away in a drawer that she couldn't reach for weeks, gave me a sense of satisfaction. It is disheartening to hear and witness stories of patient neglect. My conscience couldn't allow patients under my care to be suffering as a product of my own or other's laziness or tiredness. As a girl with a big heart, nursing fills my cup by allowing me to do for others what they cannot do for themselves. During my summer job at a pain management clinic, I've gotten tons of experience in patient care. My patients report chronic or acute pain, making their lives very difficult and unenjoyable at moments. Coming into our clinic, for them, stirs up emotions of the pain they've been attempting to ignore and the fear of the unknown when it comes to the procedure we find could alleviate their pain, often an epidural steroid, a procedure that typically has a bad stigma. My personality when rooming them and settling them for their visit is to feel out the situation and crack a joke or two to lighten the mood and shake their nerves. My favorite part is after the procedures or when they come in for a check up and share how much they enjoyed having my bubbly personality at the office. This compliment is validating because I love using humor and happiness to brighten others days when they might not be able to see the joy at that moment. My time in the nursing program has only continued to prove these points. I am gaining new skills and learning under a faculty with a mission devoted to servant leadership. Getting my education from a school that values this quality so greatly is going to be the best foundation for a nurse. This moral education will deliver me into the medical world ready to care for patients holistically- mind, body and soul. That is my greatest goal, that the patients I care for in their hardest times will receive the best care possible while knowing kindness and compassion from their nurse.

At the Hardin-Simmons School of Nursing program, I am dauntingly approaching my second semester out of five. I have overcome many hardships to get to this point, including indecisiveness and ignorance, challenging courses, injury and all the demands associated with being a student-athlete. After freshman student orientation and a meltdown from the demands of what being a pre-med student would be like, my parents pushed me towards nursing, and my grandma, a retired nurse, provided firsthand insight into what being a nurse could be like. I wasn’t totally bought in, but I had faith in my family’s vison and God’s plan for me. Certified Nurse’s Aid- a requirement for nursing school and probably the task I looked forward to the least. Yet, it ended up being the most fulfilling. Coming out of this training program, I learned many skills but most importantly I realized the impact that a good, kind person has on someone’s journey toward health and having a high quality of life. Relationships I forged with patients are some that I will never forget, from braiding hair, playing dominoes or just being the person that took the time to give them the care and respect they deserve. This time solidified that nursing is a career that I can excel at and feel satisfied doing. Spring of my sophomore year, a moment happened that would change the course of my degree plans. On the softball field, I was involved in a freak accident resulting in needing an urgent surgery on my shoulder. This surgery was the last thing I wanted to do, however, the ligament tears and constant dislocation of my shoulder was too great, so surgery was the only logical option for me. Playing college softball has been my biggest dream since I was a kid, but there suddenly seemed to be many obstacles on my way to having a long, successful softball career. It is no secret that athletes often are forced to quit their sports or miss large portions of the season due to the time commitment of nursing school classes and clinicals. Patty Hanks Shelton, the consortium school I was on track to attend, was no contradiction. To me, it seemed my journey in softball would be over before it even began, as I was now worried how I would perform my first year back from surgery and if I would even be able present for games my senior year. Coincidentally, or maybe it was fate, Hardin-Simmons was pioneering towards the start of their first inaugural program, where their mission is to create servant leaders, with priority towards being flexible with the schedules of student-athletes. This program would start one semester after my predicted nursing school start date, and is one semester longer, extending my degree plan to a full 5 years. With my nursing school applications approaching fast, I had a big decision to make: stay where I am and graduate on time with a subpar softball experience or take a risk. Making that change was one of the best decisions of my life. I am thriving in school and softball, excited for what is yet to come and hopeful that my program will continue to live up to its expectations. While adding another year and subsequently a minor in exercise science wasn’t on my college bingo card, not even the financial burden of this could convince me it was the wrong move. Reflecting, I am proud of myself for reaching this point and believe I have the resilience to accomplish my dream.

I have fallen in love with the field of nursing, so much that even though I haven’t chosen a specialty yet, I know this field is where I will find the perfect career for me. Nursing provides a wide variety of education levels to pursue, as well as versatility within the workstyle itself. I am certain that the experience I will gain on my way to becoming a registered nurse will guide me towards my perfect path in nursing. Beginning in high school, I knew I was passionate about medicine. While learning about the human body, diseases, and healing measures, there was never a class I wanted to miss. When the moment arrived to decide my college major, I was at a standstill. Having only dipped my toes into the huge world of the medical field, I wasn’t sure how to decide on a major or knew what every job entailed. My parents helped me discover nursing, and my grandma, a retired nurse, provided firsthand insight into what being a nurse could be like. Now, as a college senior, I am so grateful to have been put on this path. I’ve investigated what options are available in nursing by observing at a hospital and working at a pain management clinic. Working alongside a nurse practitioner at the clinic has helped me learn more about myself and my interests. I love the idea of building on my education to have a career where I will assess and explain firsthand to patients their diagnosis and treatments options. I want to shine a light on them during their darkest times by being compassionate and making the complicated world of medicine not seem so scary. Beginning in the Hardin-Simmons School of Nursing program in January 2025, my experiences, teachers and classmates have only reaffirmed how I already felt about nursing. This program’s teaching style encompasses what it means to be a servant leader, which is greatly needed in the nursing field. While it wasn’t always easy, my success, interest and enjoyment from the past semester in lecture and clinicals is motivating me even more to continue my journey. I have developed an interest in so many areas, including OR, CRNA, ER and NP, and with an open mind I am ready to take on more clinicals to find the spot I love. Not only would the work be satisfying, but I can also have goals outside of work in this field. There are hospital and clinic settings that allow nurses to have diverse lifestyle choices. When I start my job as a nurse, being in the hustle and bustle of a hospital seems like an exciting and challenging way to begin my career. I want, someday, to settle down, have a family and be a mom. I want to be involved in my kids’ lives the way my parents were, for example by being their sports coach or volunteering to chaperone school field trips. Working in a clinic setting would give me better hours for spending time with my family, there would be holidays off, and overall, it would be more of the right space for me at that point in my life. I think the flexibility of nursing is suitable for the dream I have for my life. Throughout so many phases of my life, nursing has proved to be just the right career for me to pursue. I am excited to work hard to make this dream become a reality. I found this scholarship on Bold.org

While I might not have decisively picked a specific career in nursing, I have fallen in love with the field of nursing. Nursing provides a wide variety of education levels to pursue, as well as versatility within the workstyle itself. I am certain that the experience I will gain on my way to becoming a registered nurse will guide me towards my perfect path in nursing. Beginning in high school, I knew I was passionate about medicine. While learning about the human body, diseases, and healing measures, there was never a class I wanted to miss. When the moment arrived to decide my college major, I was at a standstill. Having only dipped my toes into the huge world of the medical field, I wasn’t sure how to decide on a major or knew what every job entailed. My parents helped me discover nursing, and my grandma, a retired labor and delivery nurse, provided firsthand insight into what being a nurse could be like. Now, returning to college as a junior, soon to enter nursing school, I am so grateful to have been put on this path. I’ve been doing a lot of investigating into what options are available in nursing by observing at a hospital and working at a pain management clinic. Working alongside a nurse practitioner at the pain clinic has helped me learn more about myself and my interests. I love the idea of building on my education to have a career where I will assess and explain firsthand to patients their diagnosis and treatments options. I want to shine a light on them during their darkest times by being compassionate and making the complicated world of medicine not seem so scary. Not only would the work be satisfying, but I can also have goals outside of work in this field. There are hospital and clinic settings that allow nurses to have diverse lifestyle choices. When I start my job as a nurse, being in the hustle and bustle of a hospital seems like an exciting and challenging way to begin my career. I want, someday, to settle down, have a family and be a mom. I want to be involved in my kids’ lives the way my parents were, for example by being their sports coach or volunteering to chaperone school field trips. Working in a clinic setting would give me better hours for spending time with my family, there would be holidays off, and overall, it would be more of the right space for me at that point in my life. I think the flexibility of nursing is suitable for the dream I have for my life. Even though I definitely did not jump the gun to pick nursing, much consideration has helped me decide that this is the right journey for me. I am excited to work hard to make this dream become a reality.

I deserve this scholarship because I am hard worker, community driven and responsible. I am a nursing major and exercise science minor at Hardin-Simmons University. There I am also a student-athlete on the softball team as well as involved in many extracurriculars. This semester I will be taking on my second year in Student Government Association (SGA) as the executive administrator. As a board official, I oversee that SGA is striving to improve our already beautiful campus. I am also secretary of the pre-nursing club at HSU. This club is a convention of students working together to pioneer first cohort into the nursing program at HSU. I enjoy taking part in community service/volunteer events sponsored by HSU such as Serve Like Simmons, High Five Fridays at elementary schools and donation drives. I am so grateful to my parents for their efforts in paying off some of my tuition, but I know majority of this burden will be carried on my shoulders. I am taking out my first loan this semester, and know I will continue to do the same for my next 5 semesters as my families savings to pay for my college has already been depleted. I work a job part-time in the summers to fund my daily expenses during the school year, but my main "job" while at school is the responsibility I have towards my collegiate softball team. Softball has always been my passion growing up; I love competing, celebrating victories with my teammates, and pushing myself to new limits. Unfortunately, I had a season-ending injury last semester that resulted in surgery and 6 months of rigorous physical therapy. I was provided the opportunity to extend my degree plan for another year in order to use my extra year eligibility in sports. I am so excited have this opportunity but the downside is racking up another $20,000 in student loans. The ability and skills to play collegiate sports typically only comes around once in a lifetime, and I do not want to regret not taking advantage of this thrilling adventure because of financial need. When I finally graduate, a bachelor in science of nursing degree will allow me to get a job as a registered nurse while I continue my education in nursing at a higher level. As a nurse, I understand the duty I have to my patients to provide them with quality care and comfort, emotionally and physically. I hope to use my education to become a nurse practitioner, where I will explain firsthand to patients their diagnosis and treatments options. I want to shine light on them during their darkest times in the form of compassion and making sure that complicated world of medicine doesn't seem so scary.