Jenna Quill, Allied Health, Finalist
Indiana University School of Nursing

“Do not fear failure,” I say to myself over and over again. “Do not let anyone or any situation stop you from putting all of your compassion and dedication into this one.”

As a motivated and adventurous nursing student, I often find myself thinking of new ideas to change health care inequities of the world. I desire to make local changes by fundraising for Timmy and creating awareness on my college campus, but most of the time, I am thinking BIGGER. “BIGGER” means that I deeply aspire to travel outside of my comfort zone and do anything I can to fulfill my passionate goals of helping others in an underserved country.

When trying to accomplish such immense tasks, I remind myself that I cannot be afraid to fail. Instead, I will be thrilled and motivated by the idea of an opportunity that may create any beneficial change. I will persevere when people tell me that I cannot create a program that continuously helps people even when I might be several countries away. In addition to having a zest to help, I am open to original ideas and collaborating with others to discover the most effective, sustainable plan to help the underserved nations.

As a nursing student, my goals include continual education, collaboration, and flexibility. I plan on working towards both a master’s and doctorate degree in order to expand my nursing opportunities, complete research projects, and teach others who are interested in healthcare. I believe that everyone has the right to an education, and I hope to help teach the underserved people the basics of a healthy lifestyle in order to prevent illnesses.

Teaching preventative measures can simply decrease the likelihood of a person needing access to healthcare. In order to complete such tasks, I realize that collaboration is essential. I believe in teamwork and equal respect for each member of the team. When helping others, the team not only consists of each healthcare member, but it also includes the client who receives the help. It is important to establish a rapport between the client and healthcare members by embracing diversity and being culturally competent.

I realize that creating ways to help the underserved is difficult, and therefore, I plan to be flexible. Again, I am not afraid to fail. When one idea does not work, my fiery personality will encourage me to modify the idea or create a new plan. I understand that I need to be flexible when trying to change a community’s access to healthcare because there are several smaller tasks that must be completed in order to facilitate a bigger change.

My professional goals revolve around my desire to create eternal relationships with the underserved people and empowering the people by teaching ways to provide quality care in the community. In order to truly understand and help the underserved populations, I must have firsthand experience with the challenges that hinder people from receiving quality care.