Rigat Abraham

I was born and raised in Eritrea, East Africa. After completing high school, I got a scholarship to South Africa, in the field of town and regional planning. I graduated in 2004 with good grades and a best student award for 2001. In December 2004, I came to The United States of America with a dream to further improve my life and pursue higher education. Even though I got a chance with town planning to explore and pursue a great life, it was way before the curiosity of the medical field touched my heart.

One of my main reasons for joining the medical field was that in 1987 my mother was critically sick and due to a shortage of doctors and financial difficulty, she had to wait for years to get medical aid. In 1989, she was admitted to a public hospital where she had to undergo heart surgery. After the surgery her health condition became worse and six years later she went through another surgery. We recently learned that she had a hernia and due to the unwanted surgeries she is not the same anymore. Even at this moment, I believe that around the world and especially in economically devastated communities, many people are going through the same situation as my mother, or even dying without their problem being shared. My main reason to shift towards the health care profession is to reach such disadvantaged communities worldwide.  
 
In my view, nursing is not just a profession that is practiced at the work place but rather everywhere: in the home, within communities of diverse culture, public areas and anywhere there is life. It is a profession that is practiced to save lives on one hand and to teach prevention methods on the other. I also strongly believe that if nurses and all other medical professionals work in collaboration towards building healthy communities globally, the world would be a better place for generations to come.

To accomplish my dreams, I understand it takes lots of courage, risk and dedication but I am also sure that if there is strong desire, nothing is unattainable. So, I am looking forward to being a fulltime student in the accelerated nursing program at Stony Brook University. Upon joining the accelerated nursing program, one of my challenges was financial, however, I got a scholarship from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Careers in Nursing and it has played a great role in relieving my financial anxiety. The scholarship does not cover my full tuition but it has tremendously reduced the amount of loans that I will have to take.

Finally, I would like to thank the American Association of Colleges of Nursing for giving me the opportunity to present my story in an effort to qualify for the scholarship that will make my dream of becoming a nurse true. I also encourage everyone who desires to become a nurse to share his/her perspective and financial difficulty with AACN, RWJF and other organizations that assist people.