My name is Karson Fabrick, born and raised in Indiana. I come from a small town called Spiceland in Henry County, with about 900 people, and an even smaller school called Tri Junior-Senior High School in Straughn. Growing up in such a small, fairly low-class town/school made me feel a little insignificant, not unsure of myself and what I am/was capable of, but just felt as if I didn't have the resources to go get what I felt I wanted and needed. Despite that, I tried my hardest and worked hard to finally get into college and even the nursing school I wanted. Nursing hasn't always been an aspiration of mine, but it really did become one. Almost 5 years ago, in February 2021, my grandfather had a stroke, which permanently paralyzed him on his right side, giving him the inability to speak full sentences, only saying the word "no" to any question or statement. This experience, learning about him and what he had to go through, was extremely sad but also very interesting. Being able to learn about what surgeries, procedures, therapies, medications, etc, he had to take/do to treat the conditions he had acquired due to the stroke. After this, I felt like I needed to be there for people like him and be involved in their care to ensure that it was being done properly and to the level expected of that person, whether they knew due to a lack of knowledge of what was being done or due to a cognitive impairment, like what happened to my grandpa. I had completed a CNA course in my junior year of high school, around 2021, and went to do my clinicals at the facility where my grandpa was living at the time. The experience of seeing my grandpa each day I was there was amazing, but I did not appreciate or agree with the level of care they were providing him or the other residents. I came in one, and he was soaked through his brief, through his pants, into his wheelchair seat. This disgusted me beyond belief. I immediately spoke up and advocated for my grandpa, as I would for any patient, no matter family/friends or not; everyone deserves fair and appropriate treatment. Not long after, my mother and I moved him out of that facility and into our home. Long story short, this experience changed my mindset about what I wanted to do. Caring, advocating, treating, and just communicating with my grandpa as a resident/patient, and most importantly, my grandpa, was an amazing experience. I am now taking care of my grandpa full-time while also being a full-time commuting nursing student at Ball State University in Muncie. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to apply to this scholarship.

When I was a child, I didn't look at nursing or healthcare as a career path. I had always wanted to be a marine biologist because I loved taking care of animals and being in the water. But as I started to look at my mother, who was a medical assistant at the time, I saw something in her, and her experiences at work, that I had never really thought about, especially the intricacy and care that goes into any tier of a healthcare worker. A few years later, now nearing the end of my sophomore year in high school, my grandpa had a stroke in Florida, as he went every year for the winter. He had been lying for around eight hours before he was found. Rushed to the hospital, he had to have both a craniotomy and tracheotomy, and was put on a vent for a while. He was also diagnosed with being fully paralyzed on his right side, having severe aphasia, partially incontinent, and, which has since been removed and has moved to solid food/non "Thick-It" water, a G-tube was put in place. He was eventually, 4 months later, brought to Indiana and put in a nursing home. Funnily enough, I was in a career center course to become a CNA, and one of the options for our clinical areas was the nursing home where my grandpa was living. I shadowed nurses, LPNs, CNAs, along with some friends who attended the same facility with me for their clinical hours. Through all of this, my grandpa was there, and getting to see him during this time was amazing, but not for long. As I logged many hours at this facility, I got to know the physical and clinical conditions of how they functioned. I was appalled and spoke to the lead nurse, who brushed me off as "seeing things differently" and that the action I witnessed was "routine". I couldn't bring myself to let my grandpa live there any longer. I talked with my mother, who is POA over him, and we moved him home with us on Thanksgiving Day in 2021. Though tough, and sometimes emotional and difficult to maintain a relationship with due to cognitive impairment, he is still my 'papaw'. Now, after graduating in 2023 from Tri Junior-Senior High school, I am attending and communting around 45 minutes Ball State University's School of Nursing in hopes, with unimaginable determination, of attaining my nursing license not only for me or my friends and family, but for my papaw specifically, who many not be able to understand such an achievement anymore, but I will sure try my best to let him know that I did it.

When I was a child, I didn't look at nursing or healthcare as a career path. I had always wanted to be a marine biologist because I loved taking care of animals and being in the water. But as I started to look at my mother, who was a medical assistant at the time, I saw something in her, and her experiences at work, that I had never really thought about, especially the intricacy and care that goes into any tier of a healthcare worker. A few years later, now nearing the end of my sophomore year in high school, my grandpa had a stroke in Florida, as he went every year for the winter. He had been lying for around eight hours before he was found. Rushed to the hospital, he had to have both a craniotomy and tracheotomy, and was put on a vent for a while. He was also diagnosed with being fully paralyzed on his right side, having severe aphasia, partially incontinent, and, which has since been removed and has moved to solid food/non "Thick-It" water, a G-tube was put in place. He was eventually, 4 months later, brought to Indiana and put in a nursing home. Funnily enough, I was in a career center course to become a CNA, and one of the options for our clinical areas was the nursing home where my grandpa was living. I shadowed nurses, LPNs, CNAs, along with some friends who attended the same facility with me for their clinical hours. Through all of this, my grandpa was there, and getting to see him during this time was amazing, but not for long. As I logged many hours at this facility, I got to know the physical and clinical conditions of how they functioned. I was appalled and spoke to the lead nurse, who brushed me off as "seeing things differently" and that the action I witnessed was "routine". I couldn't bring myself to let my grandpa live there any longer. I talked with my mother, who is POA over him, and we moved him home with us on Thanksgiving Day in 2021. Though tough, and sometimes emotional and difficult to maintain a relationship with due to cognitive impairment, he is still my 'papaw'. Now, after graduating in 2023 from Tri Junior-Senior High school, I am attending and communting around 45 minutes Ball State University's School of Nursing in hopes, with unimaginable determination, of attaining my nursing license not only for me or my friends and family, but for my papaw specifically, who many not be able to understand such an achievement anymore, but I will sure try my best to let him know that I did it.

When I was a child, I didn't look at nursing or healthcare as a career path. I had always wanted to be a marine biologist because I loved taking care of animals and being in the water, mainly. But as I started to look at my mother, who was a medical assistant at the time, I saw something in her, and her experiences at work, that I had never really thought about, especially the intricacy and care that goes into any tier of a healthcare worker. A few years later, now nearing the end of my sophomore year in high school, my grandpa had a stroke in Florida, as he went every year for the winter. He had been lying for around eight hours before he was found. Rushed to the hospital, he had to have both a craniotomy and tracheotomy, and was put on a vent for a while. He was also diagnosed with being fully paralyzed on his right side, having severe aphasia, partially incontinent, and, which has since been removed and has moved to solid food/non "Thick-It" water, a G-tube was put in place. He was eventually, 4 months later, brought to Indiana and put in a nursing home. Funnily enough, I was in a career center course to become a CNA, and one of the options for our clinical areas was the nursing home where my grandpa was living. I shadowed nurses, LPNs, CNAs, along with some friends who attended the same facility with me for their clinical hours. Through all of this, my grandpa was there, and getting to see him during this time was amazing, but not for long. As I logged many hours at this facility, I got to know the physical and clinical conditions of how they functioned. I was appalled and spoke to the lead nurse, who brushed me off as "seeing things differently" and that the action I witnessed was "routine". I couldn't bring myself to let my grandpa live there any longer. I talked with my mother, who is POA over him, and we moved him home with us on Thanksgiving Day in 2021. Though tough, and sometimes emotional and difficult to maintain a relationship with due to cognitive impairment, he is still my 'papaw'. Now, after graduating in 2023 from Tri Junior-Senior High school, I am attending and communting around 45 minutes Ball State University's School of Nursing in hopes, with unimaginable determination, of attaining my nursing license not only for me or my friends and family, but for my papaw specifically, who many not be able to understand such an achievement anymore, but I will sure try my best to let him know that I did it. I found this scholarship through Bold.org and many other scholarship tools. Thank you for your consideration.