Donald Mehall Memorial Scholarship

Growing up in a military family, I learned early on that life doesn’t always go according to plan. We moved around often, I had to adjust to new schools and start over repeatedly, and for months of time I had to live without my dad while he was deployed overseas. Even though those years were difficult, they taught me how to adapt, stay focused, and push through uncertainty. What shaped me even more was watching my father’s strength and perseverance. After serving 20 years in the Marine Corps, he returned home as a disabled veteran and Purple Heart recipient. Despite everything he had sacrificed and endured, I watched him continue to lead our family with discipline, resilience, and an incredible sense of service to others. His ability to stay strong through everything deeply inspired me. While his path was through the military, I knew I wanted to find my own way to serve others. That’s where nursing became my calling. Nursing allows me to take those same values I grew up witnessing and apply them to helping people during some of the hardest moments of their lives. Once I started community college, those lessons became even more poignant. Like most students, I had a timeline in my head for when I wanted to transfer and get into nursing school. But balancing everything at once wasn’t easy. I was taking demanding science courses while also working to help support myself financially. I worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant, picked up a second job at a yoga studio, and still had to keep up with school, clinical experience, and everything else that comes with preparing for nursing. There were a lot of nights I felt completely overwhelmed and questioned whether I could keep up. I would watch my classmates transfer while I stayed behind, finishing up one more class or retaking a course to make sure I fully understood the material. At times, it felt discouraging, like I was falling behind or failing in some way. But looking back now, I realize that extra year at college wasn’t a failure at all. It gave me time to grow, to build a stronger academic foundation, and to gain valuable hands-on experience. I earned my associate degree in natural sciences, volunteered over 300 hours as a COPE Health Scholar in a hospital, and gained real clinical experience working directly with patients as a CNA. Balancing multiple jobs while attending school full-time was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but it taught me resilience, discipline, and the ability to keep going even when things felt impossible. All of that hard work finally paid off. I was recently accepted into Pepperdine University’s School of Nursing, where I will begin this fall. What once felt like a delay has actually set me up to enter nursing school more prepared, more grounded, and more determined than ever. Every challenge I’ve faced along the way has shaped the kind of nurse I hope to become, one who not only has the knowledge and skills to care for patients but also the empathy to understand what it’s like when life doesn’t go as planned. Being a military dependent has shaped so much of who I am, and I carry that perspective with me as I continue this journey. Like Donald Mehall, my father built a legacy of service, sacrifice, and strength. My hope is to honor that same legacy through my work as a nurse, giving my future patients the same dedication, care, and compassion that has been such a constant in my own life.