BMCC NAMES PEARSON SCHOLARS
(New York, NY) Borough of Manhattan Community College awarded six students in the health sciences Pearson Scholarships this week. Felicia Higginbotham and Nneka Ezekwesili, nursing students; Michelle Arrindell and Deborah Brice, health information technology majors; and Anjeta Osmanaj and Emmanuel Coulanges, respiratory therapy majors.
| from left to right: Felicia Higginbotham, Emmanuel Coulanges, Anjeta Osmanaj, and Deborah Brice all received their Pearson Scholarship awards on May 13. |
As Pearson Scholars, they receive scholarship awards for $1250 per semester, the cost for full-time, in-state tuition, for up to three semesters. They are also eligible to receive up to $500 for summer study.
Pearson Education gave BMCC $200,000 for scholarships for students in the health sciences. Pearson Education created the scholarship fund in memory of six BMCC students who were killed in the World Trade Center disaster and in honor of the medical rescue workers at Ground Zero.
The students received their scholarship awards at a special reception on Monday, May 13. Pearson executives and some parents of the BMCC students who died in the World Trade Center attended the scholarship award reception on May 13.
Felicia Higginbotham called it “a great honor” to receive a Pearson Scholarship. “It feels so rewarding,” she said. “It gives me motivation to do my very best.” Nneke Ezekwesili said, “I feel my confidence boosted. It’s as though the world is telling me to move ahead.”
To be eligible for the distinguished award, students must be enrolled in a degree program in nursing, respiratory therapy, health information technology, or paramedics. Borough of Manhattan Community College offers she only respiratory therapy and paramedic program in New York City. A BMCC scholarship committee selected students for the awards based on their academic achievement and an essay describing why they want to pursue a career in the health sciences.
The students had various reasons for entering the health sciences.
Felicia Higginbotham chose to study nursing after observing her mother, who has been a certified nurses aide for almost 20 years. “I watched my mother take care of people in their homes,” she said. Higginbotham noted that her mother received as well as gave. “She is a more enriched person” as a result. “It just seemed natural to go into nursing,” she said.
Nneke Ezekwesili said she chose nursing because “my dream is to work closely with patients in the health care field, and the profession where you find the closest relationship to patients is nursing.”
Michelle Arrindell wanted the opposite, so she decided to study health information technology. “I always wanted to work in the health field,” she said, “but I didn’t really want hands-on dealings with patients. I wanted to deal with their lab tests or papers. I like working with papers and filing things away.”
Deborah Brice became interested in health care because she had been a dialysis patient for seven years. “I thought I could make a difference if I got into the health field. I felt like it was my calling,” she said. For Brice, who had worked as a legal secretary in word processing for 17 years, health information technology offered a way to meld her work experience with her interest in health care.
Emmanuel Coulanges, a respiratory therapy major, said, “I want to go to medical school, so I decided to start with a two year degree.”
Anjeta Osmanaj decided to major in respiratory therapy after her mother suffered health problems as a result of heavy smoking.
Higginbotham, Ezekwesili, Arrindell, Coulanges, and Osmanaj all live in Brooklyn. Brice lives on Staten Island.
