Mr. Crowston,
I am most grateful for the granting of this scholarship. It will make the load of my upcoming senior year much easier to carry. If I can ever he of service to you or the Suridsh Rite in genial, please do not hesitate to call.

A letter from Sonja O’Claire:

Mr. Crowston,

I hope this email finds you and your wife doing well and enjoying the summer time! Just for a refresher, this is Angie Jeffries and you helped me obtain a Scottish Rite scholarship for the past two years–for that fact I will always be grateful. I am now done in Pullman and will technically graduate from WSU in August, after I have completed my internship with Senator Patty Murray. I am currently living in Kirkland and work in her Seattle District Office, downtown Seattle. I plan on taking this next year to work (right now the pull is Americorps) and then attend graduate school. My life journey has taken me to this side of the state, which is where my question comes to play…

I don’t want to lose touch with my masonic background and this is a new area. I tried calling the Shriners Children’s Hospital to see if there was such a unit in Seattle and I was told there wasn’t. Basically I’m looking for a place to spend some quality time doing the community service I have always found important to provide, but I don’t know who to contact or where to look. Could you put me in contact with someone in this area?

Thanks again for everything and hope to hear from you soon,

Angie Jeffries

Dear Mr. Larsen:

I am writing to say thank you for your scholarship assistance. I was recently notified that I am this semester’s recipient of the Scottish Rite Scholarship Foundation of Washington Graduate Fellowship in Nursing. I can’t begin to express my joy and gratitude for having been chosen to receive this wonderful award!

It eases my mind to know that I can rid myself of some of my financial worries, and focus more on my classes. This award allows me to keep working only part time, and to borrow less money to pay for my education. I am honored to have someone invest in my future as a Family Nurse Practitioner.

While attending college to obtain my BSN my primary goal was to care for premature infants, however, after graduating in 2003 I took a position as a Float Pool RN in the hospital to gain more experience in other areas. Float pool nurses work in a variety of areas including: orthopedics, pediatrics, advance care, medical, and oncology. That experience, coupled with an ongoing desire to further my education, prompted me to apply to the Family Nurse Practitioner Program in 2007. I want to maintain a close professional relationship with my patients, while gaining more autonomy, and increasing my knowledge of the medical profession.

After graduating with a master’s degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner I want to work in a local clinic or physician’s office to gain experience as a primary care provider. I grew up in Inchelium and I am interested in improving health care on the Colville Indian Reservation. I am designing a research project for my thesis to determine if teen pregnancy is related to Native American educational attainment. In the future, I want to start a child abuse prevention program for at risk populations in order to improve parenting education, and access and continuity of child health care. I am going to continue to live and work in Washington State. It is a good fit, since my goals are ever evolving and changing, just like our weather!

Thank you again; your assistance is truly appreciated. Please express my gratitude to everyone involved for continuing to support those pursuing degrees in the nursing profession.

Sincerely,

Tiffany S. Christianson

Dear Mr. Larsen:

There are times in life when unexpected blessings arrive that are, well, a surprise. It is these times that confirm to me that the directions and decisions that I have made are the right ones. In April, I received notice of an additional scholarship being applied towards my education from The Scottish Rite for the 2008 2009 year. I am writing to say thank you for your continued financial support of my education.
This gift allows me to continue to pursue my goal in becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner in our community of Eastern Washington. Over the years as a critical care hospital nurse, I have gained a wealth of knowledge in caring for and stabilizing the critically ill children and adults. These experiences nurtured my vision to one day advance my career as a Nurse Practitioner and participate in the health prevention and maintenance of our community. When I finally embarked on the journey of the academic work load and financial commitment, the future was not in full view of the path towards the finish line. Your generosity helps ease the financial burden at this time as well as post graduation when I am choosing an area to work. I will have less of a financial constraint when choosing employment that mirrors my original mission in serving our community. Thank you.

In 1997, I lived in Tulsa, OK with my husband and young son. As a young mother, I knew my son’s speech and hearing was impaired and sought medical advice and therapy in repairing his auditory and verbal ability. The Scottish Rite in Tulsa welcomed us for professional speech therapy for the length of treatment needed. I was always astonished at the ministry provided to us and credit my son’s current academic success and outgoing social abilities to those first few years of foundational development and treatment from The Scottish Rite.

I share your mission to serve and give to those in need for the purpose of human progression and well being. From my son’s speech therapy 11 years ago to assisting in my current education as a Nurse Practitioner, The Scottish Rite was there and I am grateful to be a recipient of your generosity once more.

Sincerely,
Maria Castillo R.N., BSN
Nurse Practitioner Graduate Student
Washington State University

Dear Mr. Larsen,

My name is Vicky Sattler and I was recently noted that I am the recipient of a Scottish Rite Foundation Scholarship. This is the second year I have been honored with this scholarship. Thank you! Having this scholarship enables me to attend graduate school full time without having to work additional hours or obtain additional loans to pay for educational expenses.

I graduated from ICN in May 2008 with my BSN. I am currently working full time as an RN in the emergency department at Sacred Heart Medical Center. I decided to pursue my MSN in Community Health Education because of my passion for working in impoverished communities. I have worked in Peru twice and will be returning again this summer with several other nurses and my family.

After completing my MSN in Community Health Nursing I plan to continue working in the emergency department and start teaching part time at ICN. I would like to be a clinical instructor in the community health department. My ultimate goal is to be able to teach clinical rotations in developing countries. I feel it is an invaluable experience for nursing students.

I appreciate your continued support of my education. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Victoria Sattler

Dear Mr. Larsen:

I writing to say thank you for your scholarship assistance. I have just been notified that I am this semester’s recipient of the Scottish Rite Scholarship Foundation of Washington Graduate Fellowship in Nursing scholarship.

This scholarship will help me with my finances so I will not have to work additional hours to support my family. The scholarship enables me to further my education without going deeper in debt with student loans. I am thankful for this scholarship and the confidence you have in my goals and abilities.

I want to tell you why I became a nurse and how important nursing is to me. In 1989, my first child was born with multiple medical problems that kept him hospitalized until he was two years old. At that time, he came home on a ventilator and feeding tube for another three years. I learned about nursing before I ever learned about mothering. He has taught me compassion and patience for others. I learned nursing skills at an early age, and knew, once he grew up, that I wanted to be a nurse.

Now that I am a nurse, I love what I am doing, but became frustrated with the realities of hospital and bedside nursing. I want to see changes and work hard for them to happen in the hospital where I work. As a nurse, I see things that frustrate me that I am powerless to change. As a nurse practitioner, I will be able to provide the level of care I see lacking now. I plan on practicing family medicine and caring for patients across the lifespan in Spokane.

Once again, I just want to thank you for this scholarship. It has been a long road for my family and I and I am thankful for your support.

Kathryn Bader

To The Scottish Rite Scholarship Foundation,

I want to begin by expressing how blessed I feel to have the privilege of attending Whitworth University. It is an incredible institution but as a family, we do pay more since it is private. The Scottish Rite scholarship is significantly lightening that load next year and we are all so very thankful for your generous financial reward.

The scholarship money will go toward my continuing studies at Whitworth which I take very seriously. I am currently on the track to becoming a very good high school history teacher! I can boast on behalf of Whitworth’s exemplary education program and their outstanding history professors. It really is such a blessing for today’s youth to have increasing access to higher education. The vast amounts of funds that the Scottish Rite Foundation is giving out to students across the state is no doubt having a huge impact on their college experience, and shaping the future of our country for the better. Thank you for your commitment to our education. May God bless you as you continue to so willingly bless others.

Sincerely,
Kelly Lunde