This quarter’s two military scholarship recipients, Joshua Henderson and Mikayla Shave, have described to the scholarship board their dedication and desire to help disadvantaged people. With their unique military experiences and their drive to keep learning, they both allowed us to see how these scholarships will play an important part of their higher-education goals. You can learn a little more about each of them below.
![Joshua Henderson]()
Joshua Henderson attends the University of South Dakota. His desire to help people has led him to study physical therapy. He wants to help underserved areas in his community through wellness and health advice. Through teaching useful routines and providing direct care, Joshua plans to minimize his patients’ needs for expensive surgeries and find solutions that will get the patient to a healthy enough place where they are no longer dependent on prescription medication. Joshua would like to work in a rural area in the Midwest. His experience growing up in a rural community made him keenly aware of how difficult it is to access healthcare providers (especially affordable ones). He wants to care for those in need, giving help to people without resources. Joshua was in the Army National Guard as a wheeled vehicle mechanic for six years. In addition to the work itself, this job gave Joshua experience working with people from all kinds of backgrounds. He became a squad leader in his fourth year of service, which taught him perseverance in the face of obstacles. He learned to be adaptable. He learned to hold to the values of loyalty, respect, integrity, and duty. He learned to work within a culturally diverse setting. Joshua is grateful for the opportunity to now take those values he learned and apply them to the professional world. He wants to care for his family, finish his studies, and bravely move forward. “When I saw I was the winner of the scholarship, I was in total shock!” Joshua shared with the board. “I re-read the email over and over […] because I couldn’t believe what I was reading. As a student parent facing many challenges, this scholarship will immensely help my family and I get through these difficult circumstances. I can’t thank SR Education Group enough for helping make my dream become a reality.”
![Mikayla Shave]()
Mikayla Shave studies psychology at Southern New Hampshire University Online. Mikayla is a dedicated mental health associate, working while studying, advocating for people suffering from mental illness. Since she is a veteran, she was nominated to work with other veterans, being able to draw from shared experience. Mikayla hopes to use her educational and work experience to one day begin a business dedicated to veterans wait-listed for Veterans Affairs and treatment. She plans to establish herself in her local community to gain steady clientele. She knows it can be difficult to convince veterans who have mental illnesses to be committed to wellness programs, as they are easily (and understandably) discouraged by how long treatment can take, or are put off by the provider. Mikayla wants to show veterans that they can be a team with their provider – she wants to be a teammate through the clients’ suffering, encouraging them to learn to trust. Having herself known hardship and loneliness, Mikayla wants to be there for others lonely in their hardships. “I asked for teammates to help me in the fight against mental illness,” Mikayla told the scholarship board, “and that's exactly what I received. Thank you SR Education Group, I will not let you down.” We are grateful to come alongside Mikayla as she provides for her family, studies, and plans ahead to achieve the goals she has set for herself.
At the core of these scholarships is precisely that: to help make peoples’ dreams become a reality. What a far-reaching and yet worthwhile goal! We are so grateful to these scholarship recipients for letting us enter into their educational journeys, and we look forward to seeing where they go next.
