The impact of a generous gift from a University of Wisconsin Oshkosh alumnus to the College of Nursing (CON) in 2007 continues to grow exponentially with each passing year.

More than 210 undergraduate and graduate nursing students have benefited from the support of the Dr. and Mrs. Hugh Kennedy Foundation. In turn, as those students graduate and begin their nursing careers, the impact grows to encompass the patients and families in their care.

Nursing, education and family were of the highest importance to Dr. Hugh Kennedy and his wife, Margaret. A native of Plymouth and the third of 10 children, Kennedy graduated from UW Oshkosh with a teaching degree in 1929. For several years he taught at Appleton High School, where he met Margaret, the school secretary, who would later become his wife. Kennedy realized he wanted to become a doctor and went on to earn a medical degree from UW-Madison in 1938.

In 1941, Hugh Kennedy entered the U.S. Army and was sent to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit in England. He entered the war zone a few days after the invasion of Normandy. He treated patients while in the line of fire and traveled the front lines on Victory in Europe Day in May 1945. Kennedy opened a private practice and later became chief of staff at Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas.

While they spent most of their adult lives in Texas, the Kennedys never forgot Wisconsin and their connections to UW Oshkosh. They created the foundation—to be funded upon their deaths—to reflect their education and healthcare priorities.

Word of the pledge arrived in 2007, allowing the college to establish the Kennedy Nursing Fellows, which currently awards a one-time payment of $2,500 to each student selected based on their academic excellence.

“The foundation’s current primary focus is carrying forward Dr. and Mrs. Kennedy’s passion of supporting and promoting quality healthcare and providing scholarship funds for students who make a commitment to become healthcare providers,” said Martin Davis, president of the Dr. and Mrs. Hugh Kennedy Foundation.

A Life Raft

One of the first students to benefit was UW Oshkosh alumna Denise Parrish ’98 BSN, of Omro, who was honored as a Kennedy Fellow while working on a master’s degree in nursing from 2007 to 2009.

While at UW Oshkosh, Parrish continued to work at Mercy Medical Center and raise a family with her high school sweetheart. The couple welcomed their third child in 2009. Parrish remembers the great impact the scholarship had at the time.

“It was during the recession and a tough time to be in school,” she said. “The Kennedy scholarship really took the pressure off. It allowed me to focus on my studies. It was the life raft I needed.”

More than a decade later, Parrish said her life has changed so much and her career has catapulted. The U.S. Army veteran recently resigned her post as the chief administrative officer and vice president of patient care services at Ascension in Oshkosh to serve as the chief nursing officer at a hospital in Ohio.

She said lately she has begun to realize the full effect of Kennedy’s gift. “It amazes me how the generosity of an endowed scholarship touches so many lives. It’s a domino effect.”

For example, after earning her master’s, Parrish returned again to UW Oshkosh… this time as an instructor who educated and influenced the next generation of students studying to be nurses.

Also, Parrish said she has been inspired to consider her own estate planning to leave a legacy gift. Finally, she hopes that her own children will be impacted by witnessing her experience with CON.

“I hope they see that you are never too old to continue your education and there are great people in the world to help you if you need it.”

The Art of Nursing

Since the Kennedy Fellow scholarship is based on academic merit, alumna Isabelle (Izzy) St. John ’18, of Kimberly, said receiving the honor was an affirmation of her high academic standards and dedication to her studies.

She received the scholarship during her first semester in CON—traditionally one of the more expensive semesters. “Things like scrubs, an NCLEX prep online program and your first set of nursing textbooks add up quickly, and though you will use many of these things throughout your entire time in the CON (and even after graduation), the upfront costs can be overwhelming,” she said. “The generosity of the Kennedy Foundation allowed me to get these CON essentials and still have some peace of mind about staying on track with my financial goals through college.”

St. John felt so fortunate to have received the honor that she teamed up with her parents, Lee and Joy St. John, to establish a scholarship while she was still finishing her bachelor’s degree at UW Oshkosh.

The Isabelle St. John Art of Nursing Award highlights and supports students’ scholarly achievements as well as their compassion and care.

“I wanted other hard-working, passionate nursing students who study hard and truly understand how art and science both play a role in nursing to have a chance at a financial ‘helping hand,’ too,” St. John said. “I sincerely hope my family’s scholarship can continue to help nursing students in the future to move one step closer to achieving their dream career.”

The first step in St. John’s career took her to the UW Health University Hospital in Madison. After passing her NCLEX exam, she accepted a position in the hospital’s Abdominal Transplant Unit as a part of their nationally recognized Nurse Residency Program.

Next up, she is hoping to transition to pediatric nursing and is considering returning to graduate school within a few years to earn a Doctor of Nursing Practice specializing in pediatrics.

No matter the role or the setting, St. John is dedicated to bringing together the science and the art of caring in her nursing practice to help others realize a better outcome.

“It’s about being able to help someone attempt to make sense of a confusing and upsetting situation, and even when sense can’t be made, it’s still about bringing light in any way you can to what may be someone’s darkest days,” she explained.

“Being a nurse to me means I have the privilege to share in some of the tenderest moments in a patient’s life, and that is a true honor.”

Students are at the heart of all we do

Learn how you can make a difference in the lives of UW Oshkosh’s nursing students by caring it forward and contributing to an existing scholarship or establishing a fund today. Call (920) 424-3165 or email condonate@uwosh.edu.