Scholarship Launch
Thursday, September 25, 2009
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Hill family helps establish nursing scholarship
News Release by Dennis Mansfield, PR Director, Kirtland Community College
ROSCOMMON – A Grayling area family has found a way to remember a lost loved one, while also helping nursing students attending Kirtland Community College.
Friends and family of the former Patricia Hill, who retired from Mercy Hospital in Grayling after a more than 30-year career there as a nurse, recently marked the creation of the Pat Hill Nursing Scholarship, which is slated to provide an annual financial award to at least one student enrolled in the Kirtland Community College’s Level II nursing program. That included (l-r) her son, Jim; husband, Paul; KCC president Dr. Tom Quinn; and Maureen and Jerry Hayes. Maureen Hayes worked with Pat Hill for more than 15 years at Mercy Hospital.
Paul Hill recently approached the president of Kirtland Community College, Dr. Tom Quinn, at a meeting. There, he proposed the idea of establishing a scholarship in honor of his wife, Patricia, a retired nurse who passed away in November 2008 due to complications resulting from a reaction to a flu shot.
“Pat and I talked about (the scholarship) before she passed,” Paul Hill recently told members of the KCC Foundation, in speaking for the Hill family. “This is something she really wanted to do. After she passed, we felt we had to get this done.”
The KCC Foundation, the non-profit organization with the mission of providing educational benefit to the college district and its students, will be the “caretakers” of the newly created Pat Hill Nursing Scholarship fund, according to Quinn. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a student in the college’s Level II, or registered nurse (RN), program.
“Certainly, we’d like other people to contribute to this fund,” Quinn said. “I think it’s a worthy cause.”
Jerry Hayes, a former Kirtland board member and friend of the Hill family, said the scholarship has a special meaning to him, as his daughter is a graduate of Kirtland and now a nurse at Mercy Hospital of Grayling.
“I was real proud of that,” Hayes said.
Pat Hill was born in Detroit in April 1943 and graduated from Cody High School in 1961. She married Paul, whom she had dated for about five years, in 1962. After giving birth to a daughter, Patty, and son, Jim, she attended the Providence School of Nursing and obtained her nursing degree in 1973.
Patricia Hill’s graduation photo taken after she received her nursing degree from the Providence School of Nursing in 1973.
Pat Hill worked at Sinai Hospital for a year, before the family moved north to the Grayling area. Nearly immediately after the move, she started a 30-plus year career at Mercy Hospital. Her love of helping people didn’t end there, as she worked for another five years at the West Branch Regional Medical Center.
“Pat was a night owl and almost always worked the night shift,” family members stated in a written history about her. “Pat loved people. She loved talking with people, and sharing her smile and joyfulness brought contentment, satisfaction and joy both to her and to the recipients.”
Christin Horndt, financial aid director at Kirtland, said college officials are set to begin taking applications for the new scholarship this fall, with the first Pat Hill Nursing Scholarship scheduled to be awarded during the 2010 winter semester.
“The minimum to be awarded will be $500 (for one scholarship),” Horndt added. “The final amount contributed will determine how many additional scholarships may be awarded.”
Eligibility requirements for the Pat Hill Nursing Scholarship include that the student already be accepted in the college’s Level II nursing program and have a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or better. Applications will be accepted from in-district students, with preference given to Crawford County residents who have dependents (either spouse or children).
Paul Hill said, with the scholarship now becoming a reality thanks to a recent $8,500 in donations by family members, that his beloved wife would be happy to see the effort to help future nurses.
“I’m glad,” he added. “When Pat went to nursing school, it was a family affair.”
Currently, about 3,200 students attend a variety of certificate and two-year degree programs on an annual basis at Kirtland’s two campuses – at Roscommon, and the Michigan Technical Education Center (M-TEC) in Gaylord – with the college’s service area including all or parts of Crawford, Oscoda, Ogemaw, Roscommon, Otsego, Kalkaska, Missaukee, Gladwin and Alcona counties, and the surrounding areas.
For more information on this or other scholarship opportunities at Kirtland, individuals may contact the college’s Financial Aid department via e-mail at finaid@kirtland.edu or call 989-275-5000, extension 257. Or, for details on the KCC Foundation or to learn how to contribute to the Pat Hill Nursing Scholarship fund, go online to kirtland.edu/foundation or call the president’s office at 275-5000, extension 253.
