Earlier this year, the Board of TCWD was honored to announce the Mary Layne Van Cleave Scholarship Award for eligible high school HOSA seniors planning to pursue a healthcare career. Mary Layne is the longtime COO of the Tennessee Hospital Association and at TCWD we are so grateful for her constant support for healthcare education in TN.

“She is one of the most respected students in our school because she is: honest, trustworthy, hardworking, motivated, intelligent, compassionate, genuine, and incredibly inspiring.” – Brianna Morton, Riverside High School, Ayers Foundation Counselor

“She is an outstanding young lady with tremendous potential. She is very well-liked and respected by her teachers and classmates at Riverside. She has a heart for service and helping others. I am giving her the highest of recommendation.” – Riverside High School Principal, Hugh Smith

That’s how our 2018 Mary Layne Van Cleave award recipient has been described by her nominators. We are blown away by Lilly Morales and are thrilled to share some of her story.

In high school, Lilly managed to perform a large amount of community service while working at least 30 hours a week and maintaining a 4.0 GPA. Additionally, she has completed 24 hours of college credit and will finish her CNA courses this May. She enjoys helping with fundraisers and has hosted events such as the Main Street Festival, Relay for Life, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Dancing with the Stars for Carl Perkins Center, Breast Cancer awareness and many others.

Lilly has also been an active member of her school’s HOSA program for 4 years, serving as the treasurer for 3 years. In the fall, Lilly will be attending Cumberland University as a Premed major with the intent to become an Anesthesiologist.

In her own words, Lilly wrote:

“I am incredibly determined to achieve my goals. I will not stop or rest until I see all of my dreams come true. I long for the day that I am at a place financially where I can support myself in a comfortable lifestyle… It may not be easy, but my education, career goals, and my success as a professional are undeniably worth fighting for.”

Lilly has inspired all of us at TCWD and we hope that her story will brighten your day! Keep killing it, Lilly!

At John Overton High School in Nashville today presenting another TCWD scholarship award to another rock star student, Esther Nwozo! Ester intends to major in Biology and follow the Pre-Med track to become a physician- we can't wait to see all she will accomplish!

In Alamo, TN at Crockett County High School today presenting a TCWD scholarship award to Walker Williams and the HOSA Teacher of the Year Award to Cindi Thompson. Two exceptional people with a great passion for healthcare in Tennessee!

Have you ever had a teacher that inspired you?

 “My teacher is probably the best teacher in Tennessee. I am in her nursing class and she makes each and every day a fun learning experience. She strives to make us love the medical field and it makes my day to go to her class. She is like a second mom to me. ”

“My teacher encourages not just me or a few students, but all of her students to strive for excellence. She shows so much love and passion for teaching the future healthcare workers!”

“Our advisor is the most hardworking person I know. She does everything in her power to make sure everyone will succeed.”

Hopefully your memories of your favorite teacher read a little like that.

We recently attended the HOSA Tennessee State Leadership Conference in Chattanooga where middle and high school students in attendance nominate their teachers for our HOSA Advisor of the Year award. We were blown away by the number of kids who nominated their teachers. Over the years we have learned the lengths that HOSA teachers will go to for their students- from organizing travel to state and national conferences, to fundraising and even paying their own expenses while on the road. As a way to say thank you, we created our HOSA Advisor of the Year award and we are so excited to present this $2,000 award for the very first time.

Our inaugural 2018 HOSA Teacher of the Year is Cindi Thompson from Crockett County High School. Cindi has been at CCHS for 16 years and has been involved with HOSA for 21 years. She is currently the Director of the Lower West HOSA and is one of the founding members of the Conference Management Team. Prior to teaching, she worked in the Radiology field for 21 years. When she is not teaching, she enjoys spending her free time with her family or riding horses as a barrel racer traveling across West Tennessee, Eastern Arkansas, Northern Mississippi and southern Missouri.

We have had the pleasure of working with Cindi and her outstanding students at previous HOSA events that we have sponsored. It was Cindi who suggested that we expand the simulation lab experiences that we sponsor beyond students to allow HOSA teachers a dedicated day to refresh their clinical skills.  We are extremely excited about this idea and are working to have a program in place by 2019.

For #TeacherAppreciationWeek, we’d like to thank educators like Cindi Thompson who inspire students to pursue a career in medicine- you are crucial to inspiring our future healthcare workforce.