My name is Marissa Kane and I am a current critical care RN. I graduated high school with a 4.0 weighted GPA with high aspirations of becoming an advanced practice nurse. I then furthered my education at Atlantic Cape Community College and graduated in 2020 with my Associates Degree with a 3.3 GPA making presidents list and Deans list for 3 semesters. It was challenging while commuting and working part time to make ends meet but I was resilient and stubborn on my goals. I worked very hard to get to where I am today and intend on working even harder to get where I want to go. Education has always been a high priority to me and I am honored to have the privilege to receive a higher degree. Educating is my passion and something I use everyday in my nursing practice in the ICU. I am able to educate my patients on evidence based practice through my years of schooling and plan to keep doing so with my Bachelor's. This scholarship would help me afford my education while working full time as an RN. I will go back for my Doctorate in Nursing Practice after I finish my Bachelor's. While this may seem like a big stretch for a twenty four year old in a small town, I know each small step will get me there and I have never backed down from a challenge. It is important for me to further my nursing education because it helps me care for my patients in a safer way. I love my job as an RN and helping others is my passion. This career is very rewarding and I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. I love how diverse the nursing career is, I originally started in Med Surg Tele and have transitioned into critical care this last year. There is a specialty for every personality type and I luckily have found my calling early in my career and did not settle where I was not happy. Critical care requires a high level of medication knowledge, critical concepts, communication, and extreme attention to detail. This has been very rewarding for me and I have had to put time into gaining this knowledge base. Pursuing my nursing career has been a whirlwind starting in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic with little guidance. I would not change my experiences for the world. Nursing is a calling, and to be called into this profession is a blessing.

My name is Marissa Kane and I am a current critical care RN. I graduated high school with a 4.0 weighted GPA with high aspirations of becoming an advanced practice nurse. I then furthered my education at Atlantic Cape Community College and graduated in 2020 with my Associates Degree with a 3.3 GPA making presidents list and Deans list for 3 semesters. It was challenging while commuting and working part time to make ends meet. Although I was always a fairly gifted student and made good grades, this was not handed to me. I come from a household of a single mother with a learning disability and a brother with a learning disability. I was the only child in my household in advanced classes, and I had difficulty getting through school with little help at home. My mom waitressed to make ends meet and was always pinching pennies. My brother and I nonetheless had a happy and healthy childhood and never knew her struggles. Having to do school work on my own made me a very independent learner and worker and has benefited me in many ways in my adult life. I quickly figure things out on my own because I had to. Even though my mom is challenged in learning she taught me hard work and not letting your circumstances define you. People may second guess you and think you’re not smart enough but it’s up to you to let that define you or let that motivate you. I worked very hard to get to where I am today and intend on working even harder to get where I want to go. Education has always been a high priority to me and I am honored to have the privilege to receive a higher degree. Educating is my passion and something I use everyday in my nursing practice in the ICU. I am able to educate my patients on evidence based practice through my years of schooling and plan to keep doing so with my Bachelor's. This scholarship would help me afford my education while working full time as an RN. I will go back for my Doctorate in Nursing Practice after I finish my Bachelor's. While this may seem like a big stretch for a twenty four year old in a small town, I know each small step will get me there and I have never backed down from a challenge.

My name is Marissa Kane and I am a current critical care RN. I graduated high school with a 4.0 weighted GPA with high aspirations of becoming an advanced practice nurse. I then furthered my education at Atlantic Cape Community College and graduated in 2020 with my Associates Degree with a 3.3 GPA making presidents list and Deans list for 3 semesters. It was challenging while commuting and working part time to make ends meet. When I first started as a new nurse, I started in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a very emotionally trying time for our patients and staff with the influx of cases surpassing the amount of ventilators available. As a new nurse I was thrown off of orientation early, had higher acuity patients decompensating very quickly, and I had to learn how to think very quickly on my own with little guidance. Nobody knew how to fix the lack of PPE (personal protective equipment) and the treatment guidelines were vague and not researched yet. Not to mention I also did not have a graduation or pinning ceremony, but these were the least of my worries. I was worried more about bringing Covid home to my loved ones, to my grandparents, and even worried what this virus would do to myself as we were seeing young patients decompensate as well. My coworkers and I can agree that we will never be the same after the horror we faced in 2020. We can also agree that we are stronger clinicians through the hardships we encountered during that time and the resilience we showed. I worked very hard to get to where I am today and intend on working even harder to get where I want to go. Education has always been a high priority to me and I am honored to have the privilege to receive a higher degree. Educating is my passion and something I use everyday in my nursing practice in the ICU. I am able to educate my patients on evidence based practice through my years of schooling and plan to keep doing so with my Bachelor's. This scholarship would help me afford my education while working full time as an RN. I will go back for my Doctorate in Nursing Practice after I finish my Bachelor's. While this may seem like a big stretch for a twenty four year old in a small town, I know each small step will get me there and I have never backed down from a challenge.