By Aneesa Grant, The Seattle Medium
Mary Lee Bell, Chair of Endowment for the Mary Mahoney Professional Nurses Organization (MMPNO), has announced the awarding of sixteen scholarships to local students of African heritage to pursue careers in professional nursing. Each scholarship comes with a commitment of continuous mentorship by MMPNO members to support the students as they complete their studies.
The scholarship recipients are from four professional nursing schools in the Seattle area: Bellevue College, Seattle Community College, Seattle University, and the University of Washington. The sixteen students who received scholarships are Reem Abraha, Madisen Barre-Hemingway, Mebel Christian-Ezeofor, Jean Claude Cisekedi, Lochelle Cox, Abraham Desta, Etsubdink Enkuanhone, Minylehal Feleko, Asmerom Ghirmal, Merhawl Habteabghebreagzeab, Hawa Hared, Elizabeth Johnson, Marquetta Patterson, Lekasia Riley, Summeya Saeday, and Dezhaneke Smallwood.
The MMPNO will award the scholarships at the 74th annual MMPNO Scholarship Celebration, which will be held virtually on Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 1:30 pm. Registration for the celebration is open on the MMPNO website at www.marymahoney.org. The event is free, although donations to the scholarship fund are welcome.
The Mary Mahoney Professional Nurses Organization is named after Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first African American graduate nurse in the United States. Mahoney was born in Boston in 1845 and worked as a nurse for many years before graduating from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses in 1879. She was one of only four students to complete the rigorous 16-month program and was the first African American woman to graduate from a nursing school.
MMPNO was first established as the Mary Mahoney Registered Nurse Club in 1949, when Anne Foy Baker invited twelve other registered nurses to a meeting in her home to meet one another and discuss the idea of establishing a professional organization. Under Baker’s leadership, the organization was created with a two-fold mission: to provide information and support to nurses and to provide scholarship support to students pursuing education and careers in nursing.
With the ongoing global pandemic, the need for healthcare providers, particularly nurses, is more evident than ever. MMPNO remains committed to increasing the number of African heritage nurses to address the significant death rates among African heritage and other people of color. The scholarship recipients, who often work while in school, have families, and maintain high GPAs, embody resilience, compassion, and a desire to provide excellent nursing care to others.
