On Monday,
November 10 Reynolds Community College hosted a Nursing Scholarship Luncheon
honoring the talented students who will serve as the nurses of tomorrow and the
generous community members and alumni who serve as scholarship donors of the
school.
The luncheon
provided an opportunity for scholarship recipients and their donors to meet
face-to-face, sit together and share not only a meal, but their appreciation
and goals for the future.
The luncheon
featured three speakers – Nursing student Chantal Fleming, Nursing Alum Abigail
Rose, and Deborah Johnston, RN, President and Founder of Care Advantage, Inc. a
home health care company.
Nursing student Chantal
Fleming returned to school as a self-proclaimed “career-switcher.” After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology and
working for a large corporation performing quality assurance testing, she
realized she wanted a profession where she knew she was making a difference at
the end of each day. She remembered
feeling exactly that way when she had volunteered at local health clinics and
she decided to switch careers and return to school and study nursing.
Abigail Rose
graduated from Reynolds in 2013 and is now working to attain her bachelor’s
degree in nursing through the University of Virginia. She told the audience that without the
scholarship she received she would not be a nurse today. She is already “paying it forward” by
tutoring other nursing students and she hopes to fund a nursing scholarship at
some point in the future.
Care Advantage
President and Founder Debbie Johnston began her remarks with a simple
statement: “Nurses Rock!” She studied nursing at the encouragement of
her father who told her that a career in nursing would always afford her a job
in good times and bad. She told the
audience that with skills that are always in demand, nurses can work any
schedule and in virtually any location. Noting
that patients are being discharged from hospitals much sooner she told the
audience “You know, we are all going to need a nurse!”
In his remarks
Reynolds President Gary Rhodes noted that one out of every 3 health care
workers in the Richmond area has taken at least one class at Reynolds Community
College.
If you would like
more information on the Nursing program at Reynolds Community College please click here.
