At The Villages Nurses Club meeting recently, the group recognized two dedicated students of nursing programs, each receiving a $1,500 scholarship.
Dominique Gandiongco and Chloe Siple were awarded The Villages Nurses Club Scholarship and Barbara Ann Weinheimer Memorial Scholarship, respectively, for 2021.
Gandiongco is currently studying in the College of Central Florida’s nursing program in Ocala and plans to graduate by May 2022.
“This scholarship means a lot. It mostly pays for most of my tuition,” Gandiongco said. “If you look at clinical, lab and studying a lot is enough. So, not having to worry about the money part means a lot to me.”
Siple is enrolled at Rasmussen University in its accelerated BSN program. Her program completes in June 2022, and she hopes to become an advanced registered nurse practitioner within a year after completion.
“This scholarship gives me more time to focus on my studies and focus on my daughter,” she said.
With rapidly rising health problems and pandemics, medical learning is expanding at a similar pace. Every year many students aspire to become medical professionals, but due to financial constraints, only a few make it to the mainstream.
These scholarships aim to help exemplary students of nursing programs, mainly in the junior or senior year of a program.
Over 50 members of the Villages Nurses Club attended the event at the Savannah Center that included a luncheon and the transition of new club officers into roles.
Barbara Weinheimer Memorial Scholarship
Weinheimer family established the Barbara Weinheimer memorial scholarship two years back to commemorate Barbara, who was an active member of The Villages Nurses Club.
In 2020, Yaritza Saucedo, a Lake-Sumter State College’s nursing program graduate, received the amount of $1,300 under the Barbara Ann Weinheimer Memorial Scholarship.
The same year, Amanda Arnold was awarded the amount of $1,500 from The Villages Nurses Club Scholarship. She graduated in December 2020 from Rasmussen University.
“It has helped me achieve my dream of becoming a nurse and caring for those in need at their darkest hour,” Arnold said. “I strive every day, to not just to do her and my own mother proud but to be a light that my patients need while in my care.”
However, due to work obligations in the nursing field as well as graduation obligations, both could not attend, but each wrote an open letter to the club explaining their absence.
As per Janis Ward, the chairperson of the scholarship committee for the club, the volume of applications remained high as compared with the previous year.