Three St. Mary’s Colleagues Awarded Marilyn Brown Nursing Scholarships

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Recipients can be nurses who are studying to advance their career or colleagues who are studying to become a nurse. The scholarship was established by Marilyn Brown, a grateful patient who was inspired to create the scholarship by the skill, tenderness and reverence she experienced from St. Mary’s nurses. She hopes other grateful patients will follow in her footsteps to help even more St. Mary’s colleagues become nurses or advance their nursing careers.

“We were amazed and thrilled by the number and quality of applications we received,” said Ansley Martin, Senior Development Officer with St. Mary’s Foundation. “We have many, many deserving colleagues and are overjoyed by the compassionate care they deliver to our patients.”

Three colleagues received scholarships through the 2023 program. The next application season will open in January 2024. Congratulations to this year’s recipients!

Megan is a registered nurse at St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia, where she provides care in preoperative and postoperative surgical services. She is seeking a Master’s degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner through an online program offered by South University in Savannah.

“I went to nursing school immediately after high school and have been a registered nurse for almost seven years,” Megan said in her scholarship application. “I aspired to be a nurse practitioner post-graduation, but never took the leap of faith to apply for school.”

Now she has taken that leap of faith and plans to graduate in 2025, after which she hopes to continue to provide care in the Lavonia area.

“I would love to continue working here at St. Mary’s Sacred Heart in the Physician’s Center in one of the offices,” she said. “I enjoy being close to home, the coworkers that I have now, and seeing familiar faces each day.”

Megan earned her Bachelor’s degree in nursing from Piedmont College in Demorest. She brings more than six years of bedside experience to her Master’s degree program, including service not only in preoperative and postoperative surgical services, but also neonatal intensive care, pediatrics, adult intensive care, and emergency care.

Kimmy Lebendiger is a Patient Care Technician in the Emergency Department at St. Mary’s Hospital. She is a student at Athens Technical College studying to obtain her nursing license to become an emergency department or ICU nurse.

“To me, being a nurse is providing a caring and healing presence to everyone, including patients who are overlooked and vulnerable,” Kimmy writes. “Working as a Patient Care Technician in the Emergency Department during the pandemic has pushed me to think independently, and forced me to examine my own life and goals, which led me to apply to nursing school.”

A graduate of Georgia College and State University, Kimmy is enrolled in Athens Tech’s Associate degree program in Nursing. She entered the second year of this 2-year program in spring 2023.

“I plan to use this scholarship to fulfill my goals of becoming a St. Mary’s nurse by using the money towards paying my tuition and mandatory fees,” she said. “I aspire to be a compassionate nurse that gives patients a sense of peace and healing, and work in a high acuity unit where coworkers provide professional, holistic care. I think that these goals align perfectly with St. Mary’s and its mission to be a healing presence in patients’ lives.”

Nikki is a registered nurse who works as a Resource Nurse Supervisor/Telehealth Coordinator for St. Mary’s Home Health Care Services in Watkinsville. An experienced nurse who has progressively enhanced her nursing education since earning her Associate’s degree from Athens Tech in 2015, she is attending the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program at Brenau University.

“My aspiration as a nurse started after I had my daughter and I witnessed the amazing care the nurses provided to her at St. Mary’s Hospital in the NICU,” she writes. “As a single mother I would like my daughter to see that despite all the obstacles life may give you, anything is possible as long as you have determination.”

Brenau’s program is a hybrid, part-time course of study designed to allow working nurses to elevate their education while continuing to provide patient care.

“My professional goal has always been to become a Family Nurse Practitioner to provide ongoing community service to those in need of medical assistance and who are less fortunate,” she states. “This scholarship will allow me to achieve my dream of one day working in a primary care office or as a community palliative care nurse practitioner. With this scholarship, I am confident that I will be able to make a meaningful contribution to St. Mary’s and make a positive impact on the lives of patients.”