{"id":6106,"date":"2017-05-03T13:41:17","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T17:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=6106"},"modified":"2023-02-15T10:50:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T15:50:12","slug":"caring-commitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2017\/05\/03\/caring-commitment\/","title":{"rendered":"Caring Commitment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ollif<\/a><\/p>\n

Pioneering nurse\u2019s family honors her with scholarship<\/h2>\n

Kathryn Olliff\u2019s Approach to Life is like one of her trademark needlework pieces \u2014 vibrant in color, intricate in detail and imbued with happiness, hope or comfort \u2014 lovingly created to be given away.<\/p>\n

The war years were hard times for her family in Baxley, Georgia. \u201cI didn\u2019t get to go to college, so I took a business course, and I was sitting in Baxley keeping books for an automobile parts place,\u201d Kathryn said.<\/p>\n

It was then that she heard about a federal program to attract young women to careers in nursing.<\/p>\n

\u201cA friend came to me and said there was a nursing program in Atlanta and they pay you to go there,\u201d she explained. \u201cThis was in 1944. So when I called my parents I still remember my mother being worried, but, my father said, \u2018Go for it, girl!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t know it then, but she was to ride atop a wave of pioneering, highlytrained nurses who would change the profession. \u201cThe government, during the war, realized how much was needed for war nurses\u2019 training,\u201d said Kathryn\u2019s daughter Claire. \u201cIf you applied for it, they would fund these students and so schools started training programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduation, Kathryn settled in Statesboro and took on a variety of assignments in the years that followed from the operating room to neonatal unit, private duty home care to physician\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Along the way she met and married her husband, Ed, with whom she shared her life for 51 years. \u201cIt was great growing up with a mother who was a nurse because she never panicked,\u201d said Claire. \u201cMy father was healthy for a long time, but when he was not, she was wonderful to him. For five years he was very ill and she nursed him and had that patience and those skills and that was wonderful to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, she generously volunteers her time for causes that enhance the lives of others: the Boys and Girls Club, the Averitt Center for the Arts, the Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber of Commerce, the Spade and Trowel Garden Club, local schools, and her church, among others.<\/p>\n

Recently, Claire and her husband, Ben, began to think about what her mother might like for a birthday present. \u201cTurning 90 is kind of a milestone birthday for anybody,\u201d said Claire. \u201cWhat would we want to get her for a 90th birthday? I think what is needed is to do for somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

They chose to make a six-figure total gift across 10 years to Georgia Southern\u2019s School of Nursing that the School will distribute to students as needs arise. Kathryn could not have been more pleased.<\/p>\n

Georgia\u2019s lottery-funded HOPE scholarship covers tuition, but not books, meals, housing or other expenses. \u201cWith the high costs of books, living and travel expenses, many HOPE scholars still need financial support to help them through a rigorous nurse\u2019s education,\u201d said Claire. \u201cI have heard it can sometimes mean the difference between staying in school or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, said Claire, \u201cThe University has been very connected to our family and there\u2019s a nursing school here \u2014 and Mother has always said nursing changed her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bowens\u2019 gift in Kathryn\u2019s honor will change the lives of future nurses, and ultimately, those of their patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pioneering nurse\u2019s family honors her with scholarship<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-6106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation","tag-spring-2017"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}