Laura Alarcon is the recipient of the American Journal of Nursing/ Thelma Schorr Scholarship. She is currently enrolled in Frontier nursing University’s Nurse Midwifery Master’s program. Previously, she obtained her Bachelor of Science at the University of Delaware and her second-degree Bachelor of Science in Nursing at West Chester University.

Laura had been a Research Specialist at Monell Chemical Senses in Philadelphia PA when she decided to become a nurse midwife after the birth of her second child. During that pregnancy and delivery, she found her patient-centered midwifery care to be life changing. Learning of the United States abysmal maternal mortality statistics, specifically for birthing people of color sealed the deal, and she knew she had to follow the path to be a nurse midwife to try to address these disparities. Laura is the daughter of an El Salvadoran immigrant, and has always felt drawn to the care of Hispanic birthing people especially.

Frontier Nursing University’s MSN program was a perfect fit for Laura as the majority of didactic class work is completed online. This fall, she is elated to be moving on to clinical rotations which will be completed at an area hospital labor and delivery unit and also at an outpatient women’s health office setting. Currently, Laura works full time as a labor and delivery nurse in a local hospital, she maintains four nursing certifications, and is planning to pursue another this year. She feels excellence in nursing, and constant education is the key to providing the safest most evidence based care to her patients.

Following graduation, Laura hopes to spend some time becoming comfortable in the provider role, and learning more about her community midwifery and women’s healthcare needs. She then plans to move on to open a birth center in a high need area near her hometown. Next she plans to completed her Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner Education and certification, and eventually her Doctorate of Nursing.

The NEF scholarship will help alleviate some of the financial burden of returning to school, as well as representing that others have faith and support the work she is doing and plans to accomplish in the future.