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| Paige Hargrave |
On November 13th the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, whose mission is to help Virginians across the commonwealth better their lives through education, held its annual Scholarship Luncheon to honor the 2012-2013 Class of Commonwealth Legacy Scholars. Scholarships were awarded to twenty-five outstanding students throughout Virginia's Community Colleges, and each holds a scholarship that bears the name of a philanthropy leader at their college or foundation.
Paige Hargrave, of Mechanicsville is the recipient of the Anita and Craig Waters Commonwealth Legacy Scholarship at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. Paige is a goal-minded young woman who began taking steps to achieve her goals while still in high school. As a dual enrollment student at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College and Thomas Nelson Community College, she completed fourteen college credits with a 4.0 grade point average while still in high school.
Paige’s goal is to become a trauma surgeon. There are few experiences in life more difficult than watching a close family member endure a medical crisis while you stand by helplessly and watch. After witnessing her mother and sister endure several medical emergencies, these life-changing moments steered Paige on a path towards a career in emergency medicine. To that end, a few years ago Paige earned her EMT-B license and a lifeguard license so that she no longer sits on the sidelines during medical emergencies. These skills allowed Paige to provide life-saving assistance to her mother during a third heart attack two years ago.
After completing an Associate in Science degree at Reynolds, Paige plans to transfer to VCU to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Biology, and then go on to medical school. One day she hopes to work with organizations such as Doctors without Borders and travel to foreign countries to treat children with deformities and/or life-threatening illnesses.
In addition to being a full-time student, Paige works part-time to help cover her expenses. In her free time Paige has been in training to run a 10k race to raise money for cancer research, learning Spanish, and writing a novel.
The Commonwealth Legacy Scholarship Program was created in 2006 to make the community college experience available to bright, hardworking young men and women who want to attend college but do not have the means. These merit-based scholarships are awarded to first-time students attending one of Virginia’s 23 community colleges who exhibit academic excellence, effective leadership, mentoring skills, and the potential to become ambassadors for community college education. For more information on this and other scholarship opportunities at JSRCC please visit www.reynolds.edu.
