One problem in healthcare that I refuse to accept as inevitable is the lack of access to care in rural communities. Growing up in Sussex County, Delaware, I have seen how where someone lives can influence the healthcare available to them. Rural communities are often affected by shortages of healthcare providers, leaving patients with fewer options and creating barriers to receiving timely, consistent care. I do not believe that a person should have to accept limited healthcare simply because of their ZIP code. As I began pursuing my nursing education, this issue became more meaningful to me. Through my hospital clinical rotations and patient care experiences, I have learned that access to healthcare is about much more than having a hospital nearby. True access means being able to see a provider when care is needed, having someone available to answer questions, receiving preventive care before a condition becomes serious, and developing trusting relationships with healthcare professionals. When communities experience provider shortages, these basic parts of healthcare become much more difficult to obtain. My background and bachelor’s degree in public health have also shaped the way I understand this problem. Public health taught me to look beyond an individual diagnosis and consider the larger factors that influence the health of an entire community. My nursing education has allowed me to connect that perspective to direct patient care. Together, these experiences have shown me that improving rural health requires not only increasing access to providers, but also strengthening prevention and patient education. I want to use my knowledge of public health to help patients better understand their health, recognize when and where to seek care, and feel empowered to make informed decisions about their well-being. My clinical experiences have further helped me understand the human side of healthcare disparities. Every patient arrives with circumstances that extend beyond the diagnosis written in their chart. Transportation, finances, health literacy, location, and the availability of providers can all affect whether someone receives appropriate care. Nursing has taught me to look beyond a patient's immediate medical needs and ask what may prevent that person from remaining healthy once they leave the hospital. Rather than viewing rural provider shortages as an unavoidable reality, I want to become part of changing them. My plan begins with completing my nursing education, developing strong clinical judgment, and gaining the experience necessary to become a knowledgeable and compassionate nurse. Ultimately, I hope to bring those skills back to Sussex County and serve the community that helped shape me. I want to combine bedside nursing with my public health background to contribute to a model of care that emphasizes prevention, education, and early intervention rather than waiting until patients are sick enough to require hospitalization. The future I hope to create is one in which rural communities are not treated as an afterthought in healthcare. Sussex County has given me a home, a community, and the foundation that has allowed me to pursue my education. My goal is for that education to eventually come full circle. I cannot solve the rural healthcare provider shortage alone, but I can refuse to accept it as someone else's problem. I can become one more skilled healthcare professional who chooses to return, stay, educate, serve, and advocate. By combining my foundation in public health with my future career in nursing, I hope to help build a healthier and more informed community. To me, that is how meaningful change begins: recognizing an inequity, preparing yourself to address it, and choosing to become part of the solution.

Some of my greatest examples of service have always been waiting for me at home. Growing up, I watched both of my parents dedicate themselves to careers centered around helping others. My mother is a nurse, and my father is a police officer. Although their professions are different, I have always admired what they share: a strong work ethic, pure intentions, and a genuine commitment to the people around them. From them, I learned that meaningful work is not simply about what you accomplish for yourself, but what you are willing to do for others. Their example has greatly influenced my decision to pursue an education and career in nursing. As I have progressed through nursing school and participated in hospital clinical rotations, I have begun to understand the responsibility that comes with caring for another person. Each patient encounter reminds me that nursing requires more than clinical knowledge. It requires patience, compassion, discipline, and the ability to recognize the person behind the diagnosis. These experiences have strengthened my desire to become the kind of nurse who makes patients feel safe, heard, and genuinely cared for during some of their most vulnerable moments. My faith also guides the person and nurse I hope to become. One verse I strive to live by is Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” To me, having a pure heart means approaching others with sincere intentions and choosing to serve without expecting recognition in return. I see those qualities in my parents, and I hope to carry them into every interaction I have with my future patients. Nursing will give me the opportunity to combine my education, faith, and desire to serve into a career that can have a lasting impact on others. One of my greatest goals I have already achieved. Returning home and serving the community that has done so much for me. My community helped shape my values, supported my growth, and gave me examples of the kind of person I want to become. Pursuing higher education has allowed me to grow beyond what is familiar, but I have never viewed success as simply leaving home and moving forward on my own. I want my education to eventually come full circle. I want to bring the knowledge, skills, and experiences I gain back to the people and places that helped make my education possible. Kalia's legacy is especially meaningful to me because of the values her life represented: ambition, kindness, excellence, service, and an unwavering drive to become better. Her ability to pursue her goals while remaining involved in her community demonstrates the type of success I hope to achieve. I want my accomplishments to be measured not only by the degree I earn or the title beside my name, but also by the lives I positively affect along the way. Receiving the Kalia D. Davis Scholarship would help lessen the financial responsibility of pursuing my nursing education and allow me to remain focused on becoming the strongest student and future nurse I can be. More importantly, it would be an honor to receive support established in the memory of someone whose values align so closely with those I strive to embody. I hope to carry those values forward through a life of learning, compassion, hard work, and service—eventually returning home not only as a nurse, but as someone prepared to give back to the community that first invested in me.

My name is Marlie McMillan and I am a student at the Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing at Beebe Medical Center in Lewes, Delaware. I completed my BS in Public Health at the University of Alabama, graduating in 2025. I decided to return home to Delaware and pursue nursing because despite everything I learned and experienced, I yearned for the ability to serve a community that had done so much to give me an opportunity to further my education, even if that opportunity was 15 hours away from home. I’ve decided to pursue a degree in nursing because I think nurses play a really vital part in fostering a healthy relationship with providers and can make a world of difference for those who might struggle to advocate for themselves or those who might hesitate to even seek care at all. Nurses have the opportunity to converse with patients, educate, and encourage them to ask questions. A good nurse can help reverse negative ideas, beliefs, and attitudes one might have about health care professionals. Only twenty percent of healthcare outcomes can be attributed to clinical health care, and while that’s only a small amount, I want to use my background in public health and health education to help maximize the time patients spend in a clinical setting. Connecting them with resources to combat obstacles like employment status, income, and education, that keep them from pursuing better health is a large part of why I want to pursue a career in nursing. I really think a good patient-provider relationship starts with nurses. My mother graduated from the same program twenty-eight years ago in the spring of 1998. I was born at the same hospital she not only learned but worked at, six years later in 2004, and now we are twenty-two years later and I am attending the same program that gave my mother the foundation for a successful career and fulfilling life. My mother and another one of my teachers, Lauren Vann, have become educators at Milford Senior High School with the help of their background in nursing that they received from Beebe School of Nursing. Together they have increased the quality of education and have improved the learning environment drastically at Milford Senior High School, and I have a deep admiration for both of them and their dedication to their careers. They are steadfast in their love for their students and their profession as not only nurses but advocates and educators. I can only hope that I can make a fraction of the impact that they have made on their community.

What inspired me to pursue a career in the medical field was my early exposure to hospitals and healthcare because of my mother. She worked as a night shift labor and delivery nurse for 15 years and is now working in an educational setting as a CTE teacher building our local high schools' Allied Health program from the ground up. I don't remember much about the hospital she worked in, other than the stale smell of hospital food and how the floor she worked on always had a baby crying. I was young, and wasn't disturbed by anything I might have seen. I was excited to see where my mom worked because she always was and still is very proud to have been an L&D nurse. She showed me the nursery, where the babies get their first bath, and always let me sit in what I would call a "spinny chair" behind the reception. We live in a small town, and I'm always told how much my mom is missed by her old co-workers or patients that had my mom help deliver their babies. Although some probably don't consider this to be a big impact, and maybe she never won any awards, but even now I see the effect that she has had on my community and since I was a kid I've always been eager to do the same. Her pride and humility in her profession have been my inspiration to have a career in health care. In a nation where people's experiences with health care and health professionals, especially in women's health seem to be overwhelmingly negative, I have no fear or doubts about pursuing health care. I want to be a member of a community that makes a noticeable difference in the way people feel about healthcare professionals, I want to cultivate a positive experience for not just expecting mothers but families as a whole. To do this, I need to understand that only a small portion of clinical care makes up for a person's health and that a majority of their health happens outside of a hospital or doctor's office. To make a difference, I want to try my hardest to make sure patients are connected with resources and programs to ensure their needs are met for not just their best interest but their family. In addition to this, I am continuing to learn to be as culturally aware and competent as I can be, to ensure comfort for all patients. I want to embody my mother's warm and welcoming nature because I feel re-establishing the trust between patients and providers is what healthcare in the United States needs. If I can do my part in helping bridge the gap, then I'll try my hardest to do so.

I believe that on the field, I exhibit the qualities of commitment, teamwork, and discipline by making sacrifices for the betterment of my teammates. My junior year of high school, it was our first season back from the COVID-19 pandemic and we were all so grateful and excited to get back to doing what we love. As expected, our turnout was a little low. We didn't have a goalie, and no one was willing to take a shot at stepping into the cage. To be transparent, it wasn't my decision, but I decided that someone needed to do it, and if it meant being able to give everyone else a good season then I had no problem giving it a try. Unfortunately trying wasn't enough, I was a deer in the headlights. It was possibly the most humbling experience I've had to date. Even though I wasn't the best, I still think that my efforts speak more than my failure. I believe that I exhibit these three traits because of my ability to work with my teammates to understand what I could improve on alone, and what we could improve on as far as defense. I disciplined myself to keep a positive attitude, never relent, and always communicate with my teammates and coaching staff rather than letting my emotions get the better of me, and possibly negatively affect my ability to work with the team. Overall I think I embody commitment the most. I stuck the season out until the last game despite feeling the desire to quit. I told my coaches and teammates that I'd do the job, and it wouldn't be fair to leave them high and dry in the middle of an already difficult season. Off the field, I embody these traits effortlessly through my school work, other extracurriculars, community service, family and my friends. I put school first, and work with professors and classmates when necessary to make sure everyone involved has their needs and expectations met. I value my routine, and always make sure assignments are completed on time and early so that any free time I have isn't spent worrying about due dates and new assignments. College has been my biggest commitment, as well as my parents. They've sacrificed a lot for me to be here pursuing a degree, and it's only right that I do the same by dedicating everything I have to make sure that I do it the right way, and achieve as much as I possibly can. There have been times when it's been overwhelming and even scary, but I know that in the long run, I'll be thankful for the lessons I've learned here, and on the field.

To me, my mental health is important because it doesn't just impact myself, but the people I love. I remember one day in high school when I had come home during my free period, simply because being at school was overwhelming and I found myself excessively anxious sitting at a desk. My mom was home and in bed and I don't remember what we had talked about, but I do remember when she said: "I'm just really worried about you." I stood at her bedroom door for a few seconds, not even conscious of the excuse coming out of my mouth. I told her I loved her and would see her in a few hours, trying not to cry as I made the drive back to school. She had said those words with such simplicity and sounded so upset that she didn't know what to do. It made me feel scared and guilty. Scared because I wasn't aware of what was deteriorating my mental health, and guilty because I hadn't realized how it had been weighing on my mother. She's struggled with her own battles with mental health and the idea of her having to shoulder my own ate me alive. I decided that making a change was necessary and inevitable. Finding a balance between school, extracurriculars, my friends and family, and work were first. I had exhausted myself so much with applying to college, having perfect grades, and building my resume with numerous extracurriculars that it had enveloped me completely. The stress of these things combined had me develop copious amounts of anxiety, that the thought of being behind on a single assignment made my heart rate spike. The habit of staying up until the early hours of the morning to do homework and sacrificing time with friends and family for club meetings was over. I quit isolating myself and began asking for help where I needed it. Speaking with people about my struggles and anxieties helped me drastically. Soon enough, I found a healthy way to manage my time among the multiple areas of my life. I saw my relationships improve, as well as my relationship with myself. I had been taking care of myself and my mental health, and the physical benefits can speak for themselves. I was getting more sleep, exercising, I wasn't skipping meals, and school became easier to manage. I looked happier and felt more at peace with where I was. Now, as a freshman in college and over 700 miles away from home, I place a lot of value on putting my mental health first. Having a daily routine is the most important factor in maintaining my mental wellness. Whenever I sense myself getting overwhelmed, I take time out of my day to make sure to practice self-care and make sure my needs are met. I call my parents frequently, and finish my assignments as soon as I can so that any free time I have isn't plagued with anxiety about being behind. Even though I look back on that day with feelings of guilt and even sadness, I'm grateful that my mom had expressed her worry about me. I don't think I'd be here at The University of Alabama and as healthy as I am had she not said those few words.

In my high school, we have a food pantry. I have been running, stocking, and distributing from this food pantry all year. I am like the student advisor. I have always loved community service, but this is a way to contribute to the students at my school. On Fridays, I make sure the students have their backpack full of food before they go home for the weekend. I may have not had the opportunity to get to know these amazing students without the pantry. As I move forward into college and a career in healthcare, I will reflect and carry this experience with me. Healthcare has evolved from just bedside care. When working in a community, it is best to know the members of the community and how they can be helped. Focusing not only on the illness, but the whole person. I feel blessed to be able to have this view from a young age.