One deserving practical nursing student recently received a scholarship that will help her with books, tuition or other educational expenses. Pearl Sanchez of Phoenix received the Nulsen Award, a $250 stipend, from the GateWay Community College Student Nurses Association (SNA)
in December.

“This was a member-initiated, member-approved proposal that rewards students who have invested their time and energy into our program,” said Suzanne Clifford, GateWay Nursing faculty and SNA advisor. “It will help them grow not only as students but as professionals as well.”

The club scholarship is solely funded through SNA dues, club activities and fundraisers. The scholarship is available to active SNA members who are also in good academic standing with the college. In addition, the award was named in honor of Amyx Nulsen, a May 2011 graduate of GateWay’s Registered Nursing program. Nulsen, who was on hand to present the award to Sanchez, knew of the commitment and rigors of pursuing a nursing degree and, with the help of the club, wanted to provide a financial lifeline for future students.

“With the demands of the program, so many of my peers were having a hard time because they could not work and had to live on minimum income,” he said. “We felt this award would help further the academic and professional development of beginning nursing students.”

Sanchez shared the same uncertainty that Nulsen witnessed in his fellow classmates. She had earned a prior associate’s degree in psychology from Phoenix College, but she did not believe it would offer the career opportunities or professional gratification she desired. At a crossroads, she turned to the nursing program at GateWay because it had always been a passion.

A true turning point for her was when Sanchez was doing her clinical rotation, she encountered a code blue in the intensive care unit (ICU). She rushed to the ICU, intent only on observing the physician’s resuscitation efforts, but she was asked to participate and give chest compressions. Sanchez subsequently jumped into action.

“I remember looking and seeing the patient’s wife and daughter crying and pleading for us to save him,” she said. “As I was compressing this person’s heart, I kept thinking, ‘Please don’t die!’ Then the doctor grabbed my hands and told me he had been revived. It was at that moment that I knew I was supposed to be a nurse.”

Sanchez graduated from the LPN program in December and will begin Block 3 of the RN program in the fall, with the expectation of earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing from a four-year university and hopes to one day become a nurse practitioner and even an instructor at GateWay. She believes this honor will continue to motivate her in the accomplishment of those goals.

"The Nulsen Award will keep me on my path toward service and healing,” she said. “I know when I reach my goals I will be able to provide meaningful care to patients and families, and this scholarship will be a piece of that dream."

For more information about the Student Nurses Association, visit SNA online.