Nursing Scholarship Essay
Three Healthy, Calorie-Free Reasons to Select Me
Little did I know at the time, my first experience with nursing occurred when I learned to count calories in the sixth grade. It was a slightly misguided attempt to maximize my health. This small understanding of what it means to seek health started the bit of snow rolling that began to collect a bit more snow and a bit more, and it took rolling through much more experience and exploration to turn this tiny bit of snow into the more comprehensive understanding of health, nutrition and nursing that I have today – the large snowball. I’m not going to talk about calories now. The snowball has grown much larger than that, growing much as the field of nursing has grown: to encompass the entirety of health, healing and living a full life. I’m going to give a picture of my background through three important issues beyond the operating room but central to the field of nursing: cultural self-awareness, human presence (care), and critical thinking. These three issues serve as springboards for describing my own preparation for the study and work of becoming a nurse, as well as highlighting my educational goals and career plans. Nursing, being about the care of humankind, will expose me to an endless variation on cultural attitudes. One of my earlier exposures to cultural conflict happened at the age of 18, when I traveled to Morocco. The first thing that I will remember should I ever travel again to a Muslim country is not to dye my hair blond for the trip. I missed this bit of advice in the guidebook. During my stay in Morocco, I experienced first hand the influence of societal constructs of gender on the shaping of personal identity. The way I was treated was not only based on the expression of my gender but also strongly affected how I felt about myself. While I was lying on a beach, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, a group of elementary-aged boys took to throwing bits of cow dung in my direction. At other
Little did I know at the time, my first experience with nursing occurred when I learned to count calories in the sixth grade. It was a slightly misguided attempt to maximize my health. This small understanding of what it means to seek health started the bit of snow rolling that began to collect a bit more snow and a bit more, and it took rolling through much more experience and exploration to turn this tiny bit of snow into the more comprehensive understanding of health, nutrition and nursing that I have today – the large snowball. I’m not going to talk about calories now. The snowball has grown much larger than that, growing much as the field of nursing has grown: to encompass the entirety of health, healing and living a full life. I’m going to give a picture of my background through three important issues beyond the operating room but central to the field of nursing: cultural self-awareness, human presence (care), and critical thinking. These three issues serve as springboards for describing my own preparation for the study and work of becoming a nurse, as well as highlighting my educational goals and career plans. Nursing, being about the care of humankind, will expose me to an endless variation on cultural attitudes. One of my earlier exposures to cultural conflict happened at the age of 18, when I traveled to Morocco. The first thing that I will remember should I ever travel again to a Muslim country is not to dye my hair blond for the trip. I missed this bit of advice in the guidebook. During my stay in Morocco, I experienced first hand the influence of societal constructs of gender on the shaping of personal identity. The way I was treated was not only based on the expression of my gender but also strongly affected how I felt about myself. While I was lying on a beach, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, a group of elementary-aged boys took to throwing bits of cow dung in my direction. At other