Nursing Scholarship Winner – Marly SantVilien

Read our interview with Winter 2015 Best Nursing Degree scholarship winner Marly SantVilien!

BND: What made you decide you wanted to go into the nursing field?

Marly: Nursing has always called to me. Over the years, I always had friends telling me that I should continue my nursing education, and I finally decided that it was time to go for it!

BND: Where are you currently enrolled?

Marly: I’m currently enrolled in an accelerated nursing program to get a second degree at Marymount University in Virginia.

BND: What are you most excited about when you start nursing school?

Marly: I’m just so excited to start. I don’t really feel like I’ve been myself over the past couple of years because I’ve needed to be in school – it’s my thing, it’s what I love. I just love learning.

BND: What are you most nervous about? What will be different about nursing school vs previous schooling?

Marly: To be honest, I can’t say that I’m really nervous about anything. And I think I owe a lot of that to my previous experience volunteering during nursing school, shadowing as a PA, etc. I’m just confident more than anything that things are going to work out!

BND: How do you think your previous education is going to help you compared to all of the other nursing students who may not already have the experience you have?

Marly: I mean, I think I will have an advantage. I have a lot of previous experience – I volunteered at a nursing home, I’ve shadowed in nursing homes, I’ve experienced a lot of different types of situations that you might not experience from just attending classes.

BND: What area of nursing do you feel that you are called to work in specifically?

Marly: I’m thinking either ER or OBGYN.

BND: How do you think this nursing scholarship will help you in your studies?

Marly: It would be so helpful right now because I’m not working at the moment and I just want to focus on nursing school. It would be a blessing because it would help me be able to afford books and tuition – Nursing school can be really expensive.

BND: Well, now is the point during our interview when we tell you that you are our December 31st 2016 scholarship winner!

Marly: Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! This is going to help me so much, you have no idea! Thank you!