With a midwifery apprenticeship background, Andrea assisted midwives with home births in her local community of Hurt, Virginia. Thoroughly enjoying the work, she decided she wanted to pursue a nursing degree “to have greater ability to work in more places and help more people.”
Knowing a few graduates, Andrea said she “always got the sense that Centra College nurses were well prepared for their careers.”
She began her first year of classes at Centra College in 2020. When grant dollars ran out, she was thrilled to be awarded the Beverly W. & Hampton O. Powell Scholarship, which provides assistance to nursing students from Altavista, Lynch Station and Hurt. It is one of several scholarship funds and endowments donors can give to through the Centra Foundation.
Andrea shared that the scholarship “really helped me be able to afford my tuition and removed some of the burden.”
She praised her instructors and shared that they “really encouraged and pushed me. I really appreciate that.”
As a student, she was able to gain valuable experience working as a Caregiver in the pulmonary unit on the COVID-19 floor at Centra Lynchburg General Hospital. While it is unusual to train during a pandemic, she knows her Centra College education was excellent preparation. She is currently a nurse with Centra's cardiac intermediate medical unit.
Andrea wants donors to know that she is going to be successful. “I am always working hard, and I don’t waste anything I’ve been given,” she said. “Thank you.”