NPC student earns 2 scholarships to complete degree
Jessica Fox, a National Park College student, was recently awarded the Lawrence Respiratory Foundation Therapy scholarship and the American Association of University Women scholarship.
The Lawrence scholarship is worth $1,800, and the AAUW scholarship is worth $1,500, for a total of $3,300.
“It feels wonderful,” Fox said. “Both times, I wasn’t sure I would get any kind of a scholarship. So, it was a nice surprise in both cases, and it’s really helped me out there, especially financially. I have a lot on my plate as it is right now, and so, this is kind of a great relief to be able to say that I got them and to have accepted those.”
Fox said she had COVID-19 at the time of her interview for the Lawrence scholarship and can’t explain how she got it.
“I have no idea. … They did (the interview) via Zoom, and I was sick and hot and coughing every two seconds, and they were asking me questions, and I was so miserable. I was like, ‘I can’t even think right now. I’m so sorry.’ It was awful,” she said.
“It was probably the worst
conversation I’ve ever had with a person just because I just felt like I couldn’t function and so it was a huge surprise when I was still on quarantine when they announced the winners and (Paul Lowe, NPC program director of the Department of Respiratory Care,) phoned me in so I could listen and it made me cry.”
Fox, an Army veteran with a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts, said she enjoys helping people and has always had a passion for the medical field.
“I went to do nursing at one point, too many things were happening in my life, and when I came back, I just realized that I just don’t want to be a nurse. I wanted something else, but I still wanted medical,” Fox said.
She said her daughter’s friends talked about how she was so excited to go into the respiratory therapy program.
“I met with (Lowe), and I started talking to him myself, and kind of got me excited … I can have more of a focus on just this part of the body instead of the overall,” Fox said.
She noted she has some challenging classes, but Lowe had told students the courses were going to be hard. Fox believed that it was going to be somewhat easy because she has a bachelor’s degree and all she had to do was show up to class, turn in assignments and take a test.
“I really didn’t have to do anything for it. It was easy,” Fox said.
Fox had to put in a lot of time studying when it came to going back to school. She said she had what people like to refer to as “the normal college mentality,” where people learn it, use it, dump it — to clear the way for more information.
Fox said Lowe told his classes from the very beginning that they can’t use the college mentality because they have to know the why.
Fox credits her success to Lowe for the letter of recommendation and her children for understanding.
“I thank my kids a lot too for putting up with me. It’s hard right now; I don’t have time. I have always been the mom that I’m going to make their breakfast, I’m going to make their lunch, I’m going to do their laundry and do everything they need for them,” Fox said.
“I do too much for them. They’re not self-sufficient, and so the last two years that they’ve had to be more self-sufficient. It’s been good for both of us because they’ve grown up, and I’ve backed off, but I appreciate the fact that they understand that I’m not there for every game, I can’t drop what I’m doing and run them stuff like I used to be able to do and they support me and in this,” she said.
“It feels wonderful. I’m glad that my kids are at that point in their life that they can understand. I’m glad that they do because it would be crushing to me if they were just like, ‘Well, why are you never around anymore, why can’t you spend time with me, why can’t you do the things you used to do for us?’ So, I’m very proud of them for understanding that I need to do this for me too,” Fox said.
Lowe said Fox has leadership capabilities, noting, “In our classroom, she always takes the lead on a lot of things. She’s the one that is the first to see a need in the classroom. If we’re out of whiteboard markers, suddenly I’ll turn around, and they’re showing up on my desk.
“She has that caring spirit, and she’s going (into) her practice; she’s going to do very well at it,” he said.
Fox said she was very thankful for both scholarships she received.
“It has helped me a great deal. I spend a lot of time working, and then I spend a lot of time with my kids and a lot of time studying. So, it’s been a great relief to me to be the recipient of both of these scholarships so that I don’t have to worry about where I am going to pay for college,” Fox said.
“Someone who already has a bachelor’s degree, nobody wants to give you a big chance to go back and start over because they’re like, ‘You should already be there, you already have a bachelor’s.’ I’ve just really appreciate their faith in me, and I do hope that I can live up to their expectations and do them proud,” she said.