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Contributions to Virginia Commonwealth University’s student scholarship funds are a crucial driver of student success. Each year, the university offers scholarships to deserving students. The funds mean these hard-working students can spend less time worrying about money and more time studying the things they’re passionate about, as well as taking advantage of everything VCU has to offer. Here are the stories of a few recipients who are feeling particularly grateful this time of year.

Jessica Mancuso, Class of 2015, The Pat and Frank Baskind Gift-Giving Fund for Students with Special Needs

Jessica Mancuso, a senior in VCU’s School of Social Work, was the recipient last fall of the Frank and Pat Baskind Gift-Giving Fund for Students with Special Needs, a scholarship that supports social work students who have a special need and are facing a particularly challenging situation while pursuing their degree.

Mancuso is a single parent, having given birth to her 2-year-old son, Lux, while a student at VCU.

“[Being a single parent in college] is challenging in a lot of ways. Emotionally, you feel guilty when you have to leave your kid. But it’s also really motivating,” she said. “I thought of myself as hardworking and a good student before, but it’s really made me prioritize everything and set a direction and set concrete goals – because I want to be able to provide for him and be successful.”

Mancuso said the scholarship helped her afford tuition, but also sent a powerful message of support as she juggled school with raising a young child.

“It helped, obviously, financially. But this scholarship is really special because someone invested in me personally. It says that someone believed in me. That’s really cool,” she said.

Mancuso, who grew up in Midlothian, Virginia, said she has always seen herself as a “helper and a leader,” and she hopes to continue that in her future career as a social worker.

“I’m applying to grad school right now. I want to get my master’s in social work. After that I want to work as a school social worker,” she said. “Social work is innately a helping profession. And the leadership comes in by being an advocate for your client.”

She said she is specifically interested in school social work because it would allow her to help young people in myriad ways.

“School social work lets you deal with a little bit of everything. So you deal with maybe domestic violence in a student’s home, maybe mental illness, learning challenges,” she said. “You get to help with a little bit of everything.”

While at VCU, Mancuso has also been helping her fellow student mothers, serving as president of the student organization EmpowerMom. The group meets once a month to support one another and hear from guest speakers, such as Maya Smart, a writer, blogger and the wife of VCU basketball coach Shaka Smart.

“It’s open to all majors, graduate and undergraduate,” she said. “Basically it’s a support group to empower, benefit and support moms.”

Anne Masich, Class of 2016, William Garnett Scholarship

Anne Masich planned to attend medical school when she graduated from Washington and Lee University, where she majored in biology and played on the soccer team. While studying abroad in Denmark, however, she decided that medical school wasn’t for her. After some soul-searching, she took her father’s advice and applied to the VCU School of Pharmacy.

She chose to apply to the School of Pharmacy based on its reputation and because her grandfather attended the Medical College of Virginia, now the VCU School of Medicine. Having grown up spending a lot of time volunteering in her community, she was also interested in a pharmacy school that offered outreach opportunities for students.

As a pharmacy student, Masich has held leadership positions in student and professional organizations and taken advantage of several volunteer opportunities, such as spending the summer volunteering in a clinic in Uganda. As a reward for her commitment and hard work, she received the William Garnett Scholarship, named for Professor William Garnett, Pharm. D., who devoted 36 years to the school.

“Applying to the VCU School of Pharmacy was one of the best decisions I have ever made,” Masich said. “I am very grateful for receiving a scholarship this past year. It allowed me to participate in professional opportunities without having to worry about paying for my living expenses. Being involved in organizations has allowed me to network and shadow pharmacists in the field.”

Masich’s leadership positions include vice president of the Pharmacy School Student Body, secretary of the Virginia Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists and service chair of the Pediatric Pharmacy Student Group. She is also a member of Rho Chi Honor Society, Phi Lambda Sigma Leadership Society, Phi Delta Chi professional fraternity and the Virginia Academy of Student Pharmacists.

After graduation, she plans to complete a pharmacy residency specializing in infectious disease or internal medicine. She’s interested in a career in hospital pharmacy and would possibly like to focus on working with HIV patients. Her long-term goal is to start an international medical outreach program.

Travis Henschel, Class of 2015, Supervalu-Albertsons Scholarship

As a fourth-year pharmacy student, Travis Henschel started rotations at local hospitals and pharmacies over the summer, which meant he couldn’t pick up extra hours as an intern at the Walgreens Pharmacy on Mechanicsville Turnpike as he’d done in the past. “The scholarship helped me significantly because I had no summer this year to work and earn extra money,” Henschel said. For his first three years of school, he would work full time over the summer and use the money he saved to pay for living expenses such as rent, gas and groceries throughout the school year. The $3,000 Supervalu-Albertsons Scholarship he received this year helped cover those expenses.

Henschel enrolled in the Doctor of Pharmacy program at the VCU School of Pharmacy soon after graduating from Virginia Tech with a degree in biochemistry. He had originally planned on attending medical school, but a medicinal chemistry class during his junior year piqued his interest in pharmacology. Even though he took the pharmacy route, he remained interested in working directly with patients in a clinical setting.

“I’ve always liked community pharmacy because I like interacting with people,” Henschel said, adding that his classes at VCU emphasize the changing role of pharmacists from a pill dispenser to an integral member of today’s health care team. “I wouldn’t choose pharmacy if it was just me standing back there counting pills.”

The 26-year-old hopes to get a job as a pharmacist after graduating in May, working with patients, managing medication schedules, administering immunizations, checking blood pressure, counseling on smoking cessation and much more.

Rebecca Johnston, Class of 2015, Lettie Pate Whitehead Scholarship and MCV Hospital Auxiliary Scholarship

Growing up in Santa Rosa, California, Rebecca Johnston dreamed of being a doctor one day.

“I’ve always had an interest in health, but sciences were never my strong suit,” she said.

As an undergraduate student at the University of Tulsa, Johnston pursued her love of music instead, double majoring in cultural anthropology and music with a jazz vocal emphasis while playing French horn in the marching band. It was her anthropology degree that led her back toward health care. During her junior year, Johnston worked on a childhood obesity prevention project at a local YMCA and helped with a mental health assessment study at an inner-city high school.

“Through that I started leaning toward global health and medical anthropology,” she said.

After graduating, Johnston traveled to Africa for a two-month church mission trip where she worked at local hospitals in El-Moulali, Mauritania, with a University of Tulsa nursing student. Upon returning to the U.S., she accepted a yearlong volunteer service position with AmeriCorps HealthCorps in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, working with the Louisiana Primary Care Association on tobacco cessation initiatives.

When she arrived in Richmond to be closer to family, Johnston knew she wanted to pursue nursing full time, but she worried about the cost of a second degree. She started working as a research assistant at the VCU Center on Society and Health and as a unit secretary at VCU Medical Center’s North Hospital while completing prerequisites. Johnston would sometimes work 60 hours a week in addition to attending school, but once she started taking classes full time at the VCU School of Nursing, she had to cut back on work.

“These scholarships have allowed me to go to school full time and work only part time,” Johnston says of the scholarships she has received through the School of Nursing. The scholarships, from organizations including the MCV Hospital Auxiliary and the MCV Class of 1958 fund, cover a third of her tuition, while loans cover another third and Johnston pays for the last fraction from her part-time job as a care partner at the VCU Medical Center North Hospital. “It takes the weight off having to worry about how I’m paying for my tuition,” she said.

Bri Hughes, Class of 2015, Ukrop’s Pharmacy Scholarship

Bri Hughes loves pharmacy because she loves working with patients. Hughes, a Doctor of Pharmacy candidate in the VCU School of Pharmacy, views her chosen field as the ideal blend of customer service and the study of the human body.

“Working in the outpatient setting, you can really get to know your patients on a personal level – they are more than a hospital bed occupant or medical record number,” Hughes said. “I enjoy seeing patients on a frequent basis to help them make medication modifications and save money on prescriptions that can truly change their life. I want to be the bridge between the doctor and my patients.”

Hughes said she hopes to work in an ambulatory outpatient environment after graduation, building long-lasting relationships with her patients. She’s particularly interested in chronic disease state management, psychiatric illnesses and women’s health.

Hughes received the Ukrop’s Pharmacy Scholarship to facilitate her doctoral studies. Using the scholarship, she completed two rotations at outpatient pharmacies in Washington, D.C., during the summer and attended the VPhA Annual Convention, where she networked with state leaders and made connections toward revitalizing the Northern Virginia/Potomac chapter of the organization. She said the scholarship ultimately helped her pursue professional experiences that have led to post-graduate career opportunities.

“Receiving the Ukrop Scholarship was truly an honor and beyond helpful to me in expanding my pharmacy experience,” Hughes said.

Jennifer Robinson, Class of 2015, Cindy Gouldin Memorial Scholarship in Physical Therapy

When Jennifer Robinson was 11 years old, she had a sliding patella in her knees. Every time she ran or danced – every time she bent her knees – she felt pain. Then she started to see a physical therapist. He was enthusiastic and helpful. Within a month, the pain was gone and her knees had stopped their popping and clicking.

Later, when she was older, her father was diagnosed with spinal cancer and began physical therapy. He brought home exercises his therapist had given him, and Robinson watched him work hard at them. The exercises helped his strength and mobility. The difference it made had a lasting impact on Robinson.

“It was not enough to fight off cancer, but it was enough to keep motivation, to maintain independence and to provide comfort for him and our family,” Robinson said. “At this moment in my life, I knew that I wanted to have a direct impact on people’s lives and to help them when they needed it most.”

Spurred in part by those experiences, Robinson eventually would gravitate toward pursuing physical therapy as a profession. She is now a third-year student in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program in the VCU School of Allied Health Professions. In addition to her studies at VCU, Robinson has worked as a rehab technician in an outpatient clinic and in inpatient rehab and acute care at VCU Medical Center.

The Cindy Gouldin Memorial Scholarship in Physical Therapy helped her navigate her studies and pursue her academic and career goals. Robinson, whose long-term goal is to open a wellness center that provides physical, mental and financial health services to the surrounding community, said that the scholarship was instrumental in helping her battle through a difficult year for her personally.

“This scholarship helped lighten my burden,” she said.

The photograph at the top of this article originally appeared in the fall 2014 VCU Alumni magazine. Active, dues-paying members of VCU Alumni receive a subscription to the magazine as a benefit of membership. To read the whole magazine online, join today! For more information, visit vcualumni.org.

 

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