Homewood resident Meghan Muldoon, a nursing student at Prairie State College (PSC), has been awarded an American Association of University Women (AAUW) Career Development Grant for 2015-2016.
The AAUW grants are highly competitive and the organization is one of the largest sources of funding for graduate women. The grant will help pay nearly a year’s tuition. Muldoon, who is earning an applied science in nursing degree at PSC, intends to continue her studies for a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
One of the grant requirements is that the recipient must already have a bachelor’s degree. Muldoon has a bachelor’s degree in political science and worked as a paralegal for nine years.
Although she enjoyed the work, it didn’t give her the flexibility she wanted to raise her young daughters.
Muldoon said the labor and delivery nurse who assisted with the birth of her second child was the inspiration for her career change.
“After my delivery, I was so impressed with the labor and delivery nurse, and the entire setting, I decided I wanted to be a nurse,” Muldoon said. “I started my prerequisite courses at Prairie State, which was the logical choice since I live in Homewood. I took most of the courses online and at night, you couldn’t beat the schedule,” she continued.
Muldoon finishes her first year in the nursing program this month.
She especially likes the diversity of ages and ethnicity in the nursing program.
“I am in class with 18-year-olds and with grandmothers, it is a great learning environment,” she said.
“I am absolutely confident that I made the right decision to change careers. It was really scary to pursue something completely different, but I am very motivated. I want to enjoy what I do. There are so many opportunities for nurses; you can take your career in a variety of directions,” Muldoon said.
Deborah Havighorst, Prairie State College Foundation executive director, told her about the grant.
“The Foundation works to provide students in need with approximately 30 percent of their costs for tuition and books,” Havighorst said. “Because I know we can’t give students as much as they need or as much as we would like to give them, we are always on the lookout for outside scholarship opportunities for our students. When I saw the AAUW opportunity, I immediately thought of Meghan.”