One of my most significant accomplishments has been to become a parent. Sometimes being a parent means putting your goals aside to better care for your child. I currently have a 14-month-old daughter and am 7 months pregnant with my second child. I was a full-time neonatal critical care nurse, but I switched to school nursing after discovering I was pregnant. This allowed me to have a better schedule to prioritize my daughter, pregnancy, and schooling. Unfortunately, the job change meant having to take a significant pay cut. I have budgeted, but I cannot keep up with my expenses and have had to take out a credit card to keep up with bills. Because of this, I returned to the hospital as a part-time employee. Even though I'm able to spend every afternoon with my child, I'm unable to see her due to working weekends at the hospital on top of working a full 40-hour workweek at the school. I feel like I am back where I started. I can also not take a full-time position back at the hospital due to childcare, the lack of insurance, and unpaid maternity leave. When I have my son, I will be unable to pay for my summer graduate classes since I cannot pick up extra shifts, and the school only partly pays for my maternity leave. The way classes are set up, it would put me behind a year and leave me in the same predicament that I am in right now. My projected graduation date is December 2023. If I can make it to then, I can hopefully become a professor in nursing education. This will allow for some financial relief, and it would still be a good schedule to where my children will be able to see me more. I would instead make these sacrifices now that they won't remember, rather than when they start to form their core memories. Some parents don't change their career goals to accommodate their children, and I applaud them. But I cannot leave my children for extended periods. I want to set an example of hard work and determination. It doesn't matter the obstacles; if there is a will, there is a way. Thank you for your time and consideration.

As a nurse of almost five years, I have seen what autoimmune conditions do first hand. They can turn someone's life upside down. I have cared for patients in diabetic ketoacidosis with blood glucose levels in the 900s and for neonates of mothers who had diabetes with blood glucose as low as 20. Being diagnosed with gestational diabetes during my current pregnancy has allowed me to experience what my patients experience daily. My gestational diabetes puts me at risk for type 2 diabetes in the future, but I can prevent it with diet and exercise. Some forms of diabetes cannot be controlled with diet and exercise alone, such as type 1 DM. I have also seen how my background in nursing has helped me tremendously to keep my gestational diabetes under control. Many patients, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds, suffer more from a lack of education. As a practicing nurse, I do my best to provide the best patient education possible to help my patients better. As a future nurse educator, I plan to help lessen the disparities in health care and teach future nurses the importance of patient education. Proper patient education gives patients some control over their condition. Especially for type 2 diabetics, they may be able to reverse it or lessen its effects. I currently work two jobs and am a part-time graduate student. Receiving this scholarship will allow me to focus on my research in gestational diabetes for mothers. Being diagnosed with gestational diabetes has given me the drive to have more control over it and teach other mothers how to control it themselves. Thank you for your time and consideration.

I was brought to the United States from Mexico as a child in 2000. I remember watching "Orgullo Latino," which means "Latin Pride," and I always visualized myself being featured on it. I started by doing everything possible to make my family proud. This included playing having the best possible grades while learning a new culture and language. I also entered into extracurricular activities from French Club to the debate club to playing varsity sports in high school. Unfortunately, due to my legal status at the time of graduation, I could not keep pursuing my passion for sports. I was also held back by racial unfairness from a small town. I had to fight to be able to get into a community college. Thankfully DACA gave me the opportunity I needed to pursue my college career and eventually my nursing career. From a young age, I have been interested in the medical field. I started my career as a critical care nurse in June 2017. Since then, I've cared for various people, from being born two months early to 105 years old. I plan to make a positive impact on the world by continuing my nursing career. Nursing and teaching careers are among some of the most underappreciated careers in today's world. I plan to finish my master's degree in nursing education to help encourage and teach the next generations of nurses. Teaching future nurses the fundamentals of caring early on, I believe it will make them stronger and more compassionate. I also want to break the generational stigmas of "eating your young" in the nursing field. Everyone should be treated with kindness and respect. Eating your young is an outdated practice that needs to go away. There is a shortage of nurses, and workplace bullying contributes to nursing burnout. Being able to educate future nurses, I can help break the generational trauma of nursing. Happier and respected nurses who are taken care of will ultimately deliver better patient care. So by teaching future nurses, I would be able to make sure prospective patients receive quality patient care. Being a Latin woman has also helped me provide better care to my patients. I have seen the unfairness and disparity of the health system to people of color. Teaching future nurses will allow me to give people of color a platform in nursing school, so their nurses will learn to advocate for them in their time of need. It would only take one nursing student to receive my message to create a new wave of nursing. Thank you for your time and consideration.