Diana Minor who won an NEF Scholarship, is pursuing her goal to become an acute care nurse practitioner at Virginia Commonwealth University while she works full time in a medical surgical trauma intensive care unit and raises a lively three-year old boy. In her fifteen-year nursing career she has worked as a preceptor, mentor, charge nurse, and resource nurse. A tragic event that occurred while she was working as an emergency room nurse has intensified her ability to connect with her patients on a deeply human as well as professional level. In the future she plans to motivate student nurses as a nurse educator.