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Working to Make a Difference

Working to Make a Difference

Interview with 2020 BEC Scholarship recipient Shelby Wilson

SHELBY WILSON NEVER really liked school, which is strange, considering she’s always been one of the brightest kids in class.

“People generally assume that I enjoy it,” says Wilson. “All my classmates assume I love school because I make good grades, but that’s not true.”

Wilson, 19, wants to be a nurse like her mother, and she knows dreams like that take a lot of hard work.

“I always listened to her stories about patients and how awesome the things she did for them were,” says Wilson. “And that made me want to go into the medical field.”

Even though school was not fun for her, she pushed herself. Year after year, she struggled but succeeded and eventually made her dream come true.

Wilson’s hard work paid off when she graduated top of her class at Medina High School with a 4.0 GPA. She is now concluding her first year of college at the University of Texas at San Antonio with an impressive, if not intimidating, list of classes.

College is a different world from what Wilson was accustomed to, far away from the home and the people she knows best. For the first time in her life, she is on her own.

“I come from a big family and have three younger brothers,” she says. “It’s been different, not having someone around all the time to talk to.”

The classroom and books are just about the only familiar things she has right now, so she pours her heart and soul into them.

Although it seems lonely, Wilson knows what she wants and for the first time in her life, it’s well within reach. Wilson says it is a moment she may never have seen without financial help.

“Coming from a big family, my mom can’t afford to put all of us through college,” says Wilson. “So I had to work hard for everything I wanted and needed.”

Wilson was one of 10 students to receive a $2,500 scholarship from BEC in 2020.

“When I applied, I wasn’t sure I would get it,” says Wilson. “But seeing my name, getting that letter in the mail, it made me want to work harder to keep earning things like that to get where I want to go.”

She says that financial help from BEC and others was just the thing she needed at just the right time.

“It has made a big difference,” Wilson says.

She says it’s easy to let your mind get in the way of your dreams, but her advice is simple; Don’t let it.

“It’s easy to think ‘Oh, I can’t do that’ so you just don’t try,’” says Wilson. “But you never know. You have to try and you have to keep going. It’s not as hard as you might think if you put in the effort.”

Wilson is considering specializing in pediatric or family care, but says the only thing she really wants to do is make a difference.

“I think everyone who enters medicine has some kind of goal to change the world,” says Wilson. “I just want to make an impact on somebody. It doesn’t have to be the whole world. I want to be that person that someone remembers for the rest of their lives.”

Shelby Wilson

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