Two Decades of Honoring Michele by Empowering Nursing’s Future
MICHELE A. CAMPBELL MEMORIAL NURSING SCHOLARSHIP COMES FULL CIRCLE
For more than two decades, the Michele A. Campbell Memorial Nursing Scholarship has helped local students pursue careers dedicated to caring for others. Today, Michele’s family is seeing the impact of that generosity in a way they may never have imagined when the scholarship was established.
Michele’s own path to nursing was not immediate. After graduating from high school, she worked in several different positions, including in the medical field. Through those experiences, Michele discovered her passion for nursing and enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, where she was a hardworking and dedicated student and ranked number one in her class.
Michele was fatally injured in an automobile accident on February 6, 1996, while traveling to attend classes at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. In November 2002, her parents, Joyce and Theodore Campbell, established the Michele A. Campbell Memorial Scholarship Fund at the Elk County Community Foundation to help other students who shared their daughter’s enthusiasm for nursing.
More than two decades later, Joyce has seen the impact of that decision firsthand.
A few years ago, while Joyce was receiving care at Elk Haven, she and a member of her care team began talking about the young woman’s career and goals. During their conversation, they realized they shared a special connection—the young woman had received the Michele A. Campbell Memorial Nursing Scholarship a few years earlier. She told Joyce how the scholarship helped her further her education and pursue a career in nursing.
“When we established this scholarship, we wanted to help other students pursue the career Michele cared so much about,” said Joyce Campbell. “To now see scholarship recipients working in nursing and know that the scholarship helped them along the way is very special. This is exactly why the scholarship was created.”
“Joyce’s story is such a meaningful example of the lasting impact of a scholarship,” said Tiffany Boschert, Executive Director of the Elk County Community Foundation. “What began as a way for Joyce and Theodore to honor Michele is still helping nursing students more than two decades later. To see a past recipient now working in nursing and providing care to Michele’s own mother truly brings that legacy full circle.”
That legacy continues with this year’s recipient, Rosa DePrator, a current student at Gannon University. DePrator was selected to receive the Michele A. Campbell Memorial Nursing Scholarship for the second consecutive year.
The Michele A. Campbell Memorial Nursing Scholarship is one of the scholarship funds administered by the Elk County Community Foundation, an affiliate of the Community Foundation of the Northern Alleghenies. To learn more about scholarship funds or other charitable giving opportunities, visit www.elkcountyfoundation.org or call 814-834-2125.
