Kendaisha Price receives Mississippi Nurses Foundation School of Nursing Scholarship
The surprise on Kendaisha Price’s face said it all when the Meridian Community College fourth-semester nursing student learned she had been selected to receive the Mississippi Nurses Foundation Scholarship, a moment that captured what it means to Find Your Wings.
Associate Degree Nursing Program Instructor Dr. Holly Crain shared the news with Price, shortly after Price had completed an exam. “Look at God, you’re kidding me,” Price said. The $1,000 scholarship is given to nursing students enrolled in associate or baccalaureate nursing programs in Mississippi, such as MCC’s ADN Program.
“Oh, my God. That’s right on time. God, you’re so good to me,” Price said.
Dr. Crain told Price why she was chosen. “You deserve it. You work so hard, and you’ve overcome so many things,” she said. “You didn’t give up, and you came back, and look at this. The faculty chose you, and we’re so proud.”
Recipients are selected on several bases, including exhibiting professional character, leadership, scholarship, and service.
For Price, nursing has been a dream since ninth grade, when her stepmother inspired her to consider the profession. She remembers a teacher telling her that her grades mattered “from this point forward,” a message that changed her path and helped her earn scholarships out of high school.
Price first attended Dillard University in New Orleans before coming home and enrolling at MCC, where she completed nearly three semesters of nursing school before personal challenges forced her to step away.
“That was hard,” she said. “I was right there. But God had to realign some things.”
In the years that followed, she worked, met her husband, started a family, and eventually felt the pull to finish what she started. After the birth of her baby in 2023, Price returned to MCC, just days after giving birth, and found comfort in seeing familiar faculty who had once taught her. “It felt like coming home,” she said. “Everything they taught me years ago came right back.”
Price plans to graduate in December and hopes to work in psychiatric nursing, a field in which she feels called. “It’s where I think I can do the most good,” she said. “But I love all of nursing. I just love being with patients.”
Receiving the Mississippi Nurses Foundation Scholarship, she said, is an honor she’ll never forget. “I’m blessed. I’m thankful. I can’t wait to frame it,” Price said. “This program means so much to me. I’m not just a number here, they know my name, they support me, and they care.”
She said she hopes future nursing students see MCC the way she does: a place that prepares, encourages, and believes in them. “Who wouldn’t want to find their wings at MCC?” she said. “I’m finding mine every day.”
For more information, visit meridiancc.edu/nursing.