Four Texas County Memorial Hospital Youth Ambassadors have received scholarships to help with their academic expenses for the upcoming school year.
Sydney Ice of Licking was awarded $750 while Raegan Campbell of Licking, Grace Rossignol of Plato and Winter Lee of Houston were each awarded $500. The four are 2018 high school graduates.
Ice plans to attend the University of Missouri and pursue a degree in biology and eventually a doctorate degree. She hopes to one day become an orthopedic surgeon or a dermatologist.
Campbell will attend Missouri State University-West Plains for two years, then Missouri State University Springfield to earn a bachelor’s and eventually a doctorate degree. Campbell hopes to become a physician and work in the TCMH emergency room one day.
Rossignol plans to attend Texas County Technical College and go through the licensed practical nurse to registered nurse program. Once she completes her education, she plans to become a traveling nurse.
Lee plans to attend MSU-West Plains to become a registered nurse. She is a certified nurse assistant and works in the TCMH emergency department.
Ice, Campbell and Lee have all volunteered at TCMH through the Youth Ambassador Program for the past two years, accumulating 102, 75.5, and 101.25 volunteer hours, respectively. Rossignol has volunteered through the Youth Ambassador Program for one year and accumulated 90 hours.
The students volunteer in a variety of different departments within the hospital.
“There are a lot of different career paths within the hospital that these students can learn about and experience,” said Renina Pearce, volunteer services coordinator. “We had a lot more departments open up this year for volunteers, and we are hoping to get more departments involved in the near future.”
Pearce said the program is going to continue to improve. Next year, she has plans to implement a mentoring system. Second year Youth Ambassadors will mentor the first-year Youth Ambassadors and help them navigate through the program and the hospital.
Funds for the $2,250 in scholarships came from the Youth Ambassador Endowed Scholarship Fund administered by the TCMH Healthcare Foundation, which set up the fund in 2015 with local community partners and Community Foundation of the Ozarks through the annual “Give Ozarks” day fundraising effort.
Additional scholarship funds for the year were provided through a grant from the Intercounty Charitable and Educational Foundation.
With giving efforts from 2018 and previous years, the Youth Ambassador Endowed Scholarship Fund is at $38,000.
Jay Gentry, healthcare foundation director, said the foundation is continuing to grow the endowment fund with hopes of giving away two $750 scholarships permanently to Youth Ambassadors each year.
“The 2018 fund level along with additional donor support allowed us to give out $2,250 total in scholarship funds, a record amount, which is greatly appreciated by the recipients,” Gentry said, adding that in 2019, the endowed fund levels should allow for at least one $750 and one $500 scholarship.
According to Gentry, the Youth Ambassador endowment will need to reach $40,000 to allow two annual $750 scholarships.
Scholarship recipients are asked to fill out an application and write two essays that ask about the student’s future academic and career goals, as well as their involvement in the Youth Ambassadors program.
TCMH Youth Ambassadors are high school juniors or seniors or college students from Texas County, including those from Mountain Grove. The students are chosen in the fall each year, and are required to volunteer a minimum of four hours each month to remain in the program.
Additional information about the Youth Ambassador volunteer program or the healthcare
foundation can be found at www.tcmh.org.