Brandie Brown is the winner of the 20th Anniversary Sunshine Camps Scholarship for $20,000 in 2013. Brandie recently graduated from Mary Hardin Baylor and is currently a Registered Nurse at St. David’s North Austin Medical Center in the Neurology department. In addition to being our September Speaker at YWA’s monthly speaker series, YWA had the privilege to sit down with Brandie and get to know her. YWA is honored to know Brandie and thankful for her story.
Q: How did you feel when you first heard you were awarded YWA’s $20k scholarship?
A: I was so overwhelmed and honored with joy that I began to cry when I heard the news. I felt as though YWA, this group of inspiring young women, handed me my dreams and believed in what I can do and what I aspired to be.
Q: In what way(s) has YWA impacted you?
A: The $20k scholarship helped me to be successful because I knew that there were women behind me supporting my dreams and helping me achieve them by faithfully sending in the scholarship money to my school on my behalf. YWA has impacted my life by allowing me to not worry about the financial side of school and enabled me to focus on the education and to be studious and persistent in my dream of obtaining my BSN. I was truly blessed and grateful to have been given such a wonderful opportunity.
- Growing up, did you always know you wanted to be a nurse?
- Since I was 8 years old I have had a passion for becoming a nurse.
- Why did you choose nursing?
- There was no specific event or reason why I knew I wanted to have this career but it felt, in my heart, that this was my calling.
- What do you love most about being a nurse?
- Connecting with the people that I take care of and meeting people of all different backgrounds.
Q: What do you find most challenging as a nurse?
A: The mental and physical fatigue. Taking care of yourself as a caretaker is one of the hardest things for people to do.
Q: Walk through your day to day at work with us.
A: As a night shift nurse, I first prepare for the 12-hour shift by getting background information from the previous nurse on my designated patients. Then, I give any critical or routine medications and do head to toe assessments. Since I work on the neurology floor, we do neuro checks every 4 hours to make sure there are no changes throughout the night. I provide critical care and decision making if there are any changes.
Q: In Nursing School, what was your favorite class and why?
A: Pathophysiology – study of disease processes in the body and how each disease effects the different organs of the body. Since I am a “why” person, I enjoyed this class because it gave me the reason behind how we are treating our patients.
Q: What was your least favorite class and why?
A: Global and Population Perspective because of the load of papers I had to write.
Q: Did you participate in any extracurricular in Nursing School?
A: Young Life, which is a mentorship to students of the local High School. As a Young Life leader, I was able to create lifelong friendships with young girls, while walking with them on their journey to find Christ. Though this group is not exclusive to kids that are Christian, we do help them pursue that path if that’s their desire.
Q: What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of?
A: Graduating Nursing School and passing the NCLEX-RN exam to officially become a Registered Nurse.
Q: What is your favorite thing about yourself?
A: I believe it would be my capacity for caring for others and my compassion toward people of all backgrounds. I have a big heard and I definitely wear it on my sleeve.
Q: What is your least favorite thing about yourself?
A: My favorite thing about myself is also my least favorite because having a heart that big can lead to many disappointments and heartaches to overcome.
Q: What is the best advice you’ve received and who was if from?
A: The best advice I have received was from my Mother, who quoted Eleanor Roosevelt. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” As an eleven-year-old child being bullied at the time, it helped me change my outlook on life for the rest of my life.
Q: What is your biggest life lesson to date?
A: That no dream is too foolish or too out of reach for you to achieve. Nothing is impossible, though there might be bumps along the way, the journey is well worth it.
Now for some fun questions!
Q: Favorite social media platform?
A: Instagram, because a picture is worth a thousand words even if it is staged.
Q: What song are you listening to on repeat?
A: Issues by Julia Michaels
Q: If you could time travel, where would you go?
A: 1920, New Orleans
Q: If you could eat only three foods for the rest of your life, what would they be?
A: Pasta, Enchiladas & Breakfast tacos.
Q: What is your dream vacation?
A; Backpacking across Europe
Q: What is your biggest fear?
A: My biggest fear is failure and my biggest irrational fear is clowns.
Q: What three famous people, living or not, would you invite to your fantasy dinner party?
A: Michelle Obama, Audrey Hepburn & Amelia Earhart
