ALS has impacted my life in unchangeable and devastating ways. Claiming the life of my mom 4 short months ago and potentially mine. While preparing for clinicals and taking the fundamentals of nursing, my mother died. On October 3, 2025, I received the call that my best friend and greatest supporter had lost her battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis shortly after her diagnosis. I had just walked out of class when I learned that the death rattle had begun through my dad’s shattered voice. In the middle of catheter placements and medication administration, my world turned upside down. Emotionally, I was destroyed. My mom and I were extremely close, as people always told us we were inseparable. Getting through nursing school is extremely tough, even more so now that my pat on the back and words of wisdom are gone. I immediately stepped into a maternal role for my younger brother and became a source of strength for my grieving family. At just 19 years old, I never imagined I would be planning a funeral or delivering a eulogy for my favorite person. I was devastated. However, my mother raised me to be resilient, pursue my dreams, and take risks, so I chose to honor her by moving forward. Four months prior to her passing, I was selected as a freshman to graduate a semester early. Which is an opportunity offered to fewer than three students annually at the UT School of Nursing. Given this privilege, I returned to school shortly after her death and finished strong in all my fundamentals courses, while also helping hold my family together from 1,000 miles away. As I prepare for my hospital clinical rotations starting in three weeks, I carry the resilience this adversity has given me and remain committed to becoming the best nurse I can be. Moving forward, I want to help others as a nurse and provide comfortable, prolonged life measures for my patients. The adversity that still remains is my grief and the financial burden left on my family. My little brother is about to go off to college, and I still have a year and a half worth of school left to pay for. After informing the school of my mother’s passing and submitting tax forms, they denied us aid because we are not Texas residents. Now that my dad is a single father, the financial burden is heavy. My mom was diagnosed in July and died just three months later, so we did not have time to prepare for the future financially, as we were busy taking care of medical bills. We also experienced bills from genetic testing, as just weeks after she died, I found out that I, too, carried the gene that was the cause of her ALS. I am currently working as a nanny, but I am unable to take a full-time job because I am a full-time student, completing 12 hours of hospital clinicals twice a week in addition to regular classes. We are deeply concerned about being able to cover the next year and a half, as out-of-state tuition, in addition to housing, is extremely expensive.

While preparing for nursing clinicals and taking the fundamentals of nursing, my mother died from ALS. Just three months after her diagnosis. On October 3, 2025, I received the call that my best friend and greatest supporter had lost her battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis shortly after her diagnosis. I had just walked out of class when I learned that the death rattle had begun through my dad’s shattered voice. In the middle of catheter placements and medication administration, my world turned upside down. Emotionally, I was destroyed. My mom and I were extremely close, as people always told us we were inseparable. Getting through nursing school is extremely tough, even more so now that my pat on the back and words of wisdom are gone. I immediately stepped into a maternal role for my younger brother and became a source of strength for my grieving family. At just 19 years old, I never imagined I would be planning a funeral or delivering a eulogy for my favorite person. I was devastated. However, my mother raised me to be resilient, pursue my dreams, and take risks, so I chose to honor her by moving forward. Four months prior to her passing, I was selected as a freshman to graduate a semester early. Which is an opportunity offered to fewer than three students annually at the UT School of Nursing. Given this privilege, I returned to school shortly after her death and finished strong in all my fundamentals courses, while also helping hold my family together from 1,000 miles away. As I prepare for my hospital clinical rotations starting in three weeks, I carry the resilience this adversity has given me and remain committed to becoming the best nurse I can be. The adversity that still remains is my grief and the financial burden left on my family. My little brother is about to go off to college, and I still have a year and a half worth of school left to pay for. After informing the school of my mother’s passing and submitting tax forms, they denied us aid because we are not Texas residents. Now that my dad is a single father, the financial burden is heavy. My mom was diagnosed in July and died just three months later, so we did not have time to prepare for the future financially, as we were busy taking care of medical bills. We also experienced bills from genetic testing, as just weeks after she died, I found out that I, too, carried the gene that was the cause of her ALS. I am currently working as a nanny, but I am unable to take a full-time job because I am a full-time student, completing 12 hours of hospital clinicals twice a week in addition to regular classes. We are deeply concerned about being able to cover the next year and a half, as out-of-state tuition, in addition to housing, is extremely expensive. This scholarship would not only help me to finish my last year of school but would also provide my family with closure. Working with the ALS network has been life-changing, thanks to the verbal support we have received. I want to continue to stay involved within the network, as I may end up developing ALS myself with the gene, but in the meantime, I want that sense of community that understands this devastating disease.