RECENT SENMC NURSING GRADUATE, LAURA NAGLE RECEIVES THE NIGHTINGALE
SCHOLARSHIP
By Sky Soto
Recent Southeast New Mexico College (SENMC) Nursing Graduate, Laura Nagle, is among the twenty
recipients of the 2023 Nightingale Scholarship awarded by the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence.
Each year, the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence awards $1000 Nightingale Scholarships to
twenty outstanding nursing students from around the state of New Mexico to assist them in pursuit of their
nursing degrees. Criteria for the scholarship is highly competitive. Winning applicants must demonstrate
incredible dedication to their work, their studies, and their communities. To be eligible for the scholarship,
the student must fill out the application and answer all the questions as well as provide references which
include current instructors. The applicant must be a New Mexico resident currently enrolled in a nursing
program approved by the NM Board of Nursing who has completed the first semester or 6-8 hours of a
nursing program (Nursing courses, not pre-requisites) and maintained at least an overall 2.5 GPA or above.
Dianne Hardin, Nursing Program Director at SENMC said, "Each year I send out the information on how to
apply for this scholarship to the students. It is up to them to follow through. I was extremely proud when I
was notified by the New Mexico Center for Nursing Excellence that Laura had been chosen as a recipient.
Laura is an excellent student and has demonstrated her commitment to her nursing education. She has been
very involved and active in the Student Nurses’ Association as President and is always helping and
mentoring her peers. Laura is very deserving and will be a great nurse. All of the nursing faculty are
extremely proud of Laura, and we are glad we were a part of facilitating her education in nursing.”
Laura says, “ I have been really inspired by Florence Nightingale and feel very honored to have received
this award. The Nursing program is very rigorous, but it has been very helpful, and I feel prepared to be a
nurse. The faculty and all the neighboring community sites that we went to were very helpful in developing
the skills that we need to be competent and safe nurses. I plan to take the next month to study for my
NCLEX, which is the Kaplan program that was bought for our school. I will be working at the Emergency
Room at Carlsbad Medical Center, where I am committed to a year and hope to grow there. I would tell
future students that are going into the nursing program, that it is possible, you can do it! I have a three-year-
old and a partner. It was hard on our family, but we did it and now we came out victorious. So just keep
going and even if it is hard and even if you fail a test, or if you think you will not make it, you are going to
make it if you just keep going.”

Content and photo provided by SENMC