“Ambition and determination are not enough.”

Erin Szpara has big goals—goals that will help her make important contributions in her chosen field of health care. Now, a donor's generosity has provided her with the means to start achieving those goals. Erin is a student in UW-Eau Claire's collaborative nursing program, in which individuals with R.N. degrees return to school to earn B.S.N. degrees. But she doesn't plan to stop there. She'd like to become a nurse practitioner and eventually complete a Ph.D. in nursing research. These once unattainable dreams are now one step closer to reality, thanks to the support Erin's received through the William Bartlett Native American Collaborative Nursing Scholarship.

Q&A with Erin Szpara:

Basic information: Nursing major at UW-Eau Claire; registered nurse in the cardiology unit at Luther Hospital, Eau Claire; 2002 recipient of the William Bartlett Native American Collaborative Nursing Scholarship.

Why I chose UW-Eau Claire: UW-Eau Claire is conveniently located, and it offers advanced nursing degrees. Also, several nurses who are very influential in my life and practice (whether they are aware of it or not) either are attending graduate school at UW-Eau Claire, have completed the graduate program, are School of Nursing faculty or have been faculty.

My postgraduation goals: I plan to become an adult nurse practitioner, with the intention of maintaining my practice in cardiology at Luther Midelfort-Mayo here in Eau Claire. Eventually I would like to complete a Ph.D. in nursing research.

How donors’ generosity has made a difference in my life: Support that I’ve received in the form of scholarships — the previous IHS scholarship and the William Bartlett Native American Collaborative Nursing Scholarship in particular — has enabled me to return to school and pursue this dream of advanced degree, practice, and research that I otherwise had no hope of ever achieving.

What I’d like to tell my benefactors: I would like to thank my benefactors most emphatically and without reserve for their generosity. Ambition and determination are not enough, and it is your gifts that give earnest and sincere nurses — present and future — the means to better themselves. In doing so, the recipients of nursing care, and indeed nursing itself, can only benefit. Investment in nursing education is an investment in nursing and health care overall — a thing we cannot afford leave underfunded at this extremely and increasingly critical point in time.

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