Chika joined Episcopal Church Home (ECH) August of 2013 as an on-call Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). Within a month Chika took a block schedule because she felt love from the community and loved coming to work.
After five years, Chika enrolled in school to further her degree in nursing and was accepted. Chika applied for support from our Episcopal Homes Foundation’s Scholarship Program, which was established to promote pathways to greater financial stability for our remarkable staff members – 70 percent of whom are people of color. “I was going off faith because I knew it would be a difficult situation. Navigating work, paying off school, and being a single mom at the time,” Chika told us.
Being a scholarship recipient helped Chika to finish her degree without the use of loans and without the need to increase her work schedule. This allowed her to focus on her schoolwork and spend time with her son, Zion. Her schooling helped her advance from an LPN to get her RN license, which comes with a pay raise and opportunities for advancement and greater wage stability for her family.
Chika graduated March of 2019 and has gone on to get her BSN. She has ambitions of one day getting her MSN. “I am forever grateful to the Foundation Scholarship for the money. It was on-time and a stress reliever. Thank you. Hopefully I am able to pay it forward to help change someone else’s life.”
Congratulations Chika, you are changing lives every day.