2022 Recipients

 My name is Morgan Maclean. I  am transferring to Belmont University’s nursing program in the fall. I  grew up in Arroyo Grande, California and I have lived in the area since  high school. I currently work as a CNA. I love working out, hanging out with friends and family and listening to music in my free time. 

My  high school experience was smooth sailing until my senior year. During  my senior year, my best friend and I attended the Route 91 festival for her 17th birthday. On October 1st, eight minutes before the massacre  unfolded we decided to finish the concert from our hotel room window. We  walked to our hotel and opened our window to what we thought were  fireworks, but very quickly realized what we were witnessing. 

My  experience in Vegas created a lot of bumps in the road for me the rest  of my senior year. I then began working in nursing homes. I have fallen  in love with patient care, and I have been able to see how my experience and story can have a positive impact on others. Four years later, I accompanied that same best friend for her birthday trip in Nashville and  I fell in love with the city and atmosphere. I applied to Belmont  University and got in. I want to continue to use my experience in Vegas  to help others and show positivity throughout my life and career.

 It feels like I have always known that my calling in life was to teach. I  started thinking about it seriously in high school and attended college  with the intent that I was going to be teaching as a career. My  favorite aspect is seeing that moment of understanding in a student’s  eyes, when the gears finally click into place after attempting a concept over and over and they finally achieve the understanding that they set  out for. There is a little light that goes on and I know I want to be a  part of that achievement. 

I have a passion for learning and I want to  share that learning with early education learners, to have the  opportunity to be a part of their initial steps into being a lifelong  learner and to help inspire them to love learning. To me, being a  lifelong learner also means to be a lifelong reader. I want to be one  of the many teachers my students will have that builds up their confidence in reading so that they never lose a love for it, a love for reading material that furthers their learning development and satiates their interests. Many adults say that they haven’t read a book since  high school. I want to change that, starting with the new generations growing up, building that interest in reading early and teaching them  the tools they need so that they will never get bored of reading and  learning as they grow up and become a part of creating a better world for  everyone.