The Columbia State Community College Foundation has recently received funds that will help support nontraditional nursing students’ educational journey at the college.

The Mary Alyson Carter Nursing Scholarship is established by Patrick M. Carter in honor of his wife, Mary Alyson, in celebration of her personal and professional journey.

The endowed scholarship is intended to encourage and support nontraditional students at Columbia State who have the courage to begin again, so that they, like Mary Alyson, may fully realize their potential. The endowment also commemorates Oct. 6, a date of special importance to the Carter family.

For Mary Alyson, enrolling at Columbia State as a nontraditional student was a lifeline. There, she found the foundation, confidence and opportunity to begin again. That start set her on a path that led to Lipscomb University, then Vanderbilt University and ultimately to a distinguished career as a nurse practitioner.

“It is a meaningful full-circle story: Mary Alyson benefited from the support she received at Columbia State, and today, future students will benefit from the success she has achieved,” said Bethany Lay, Columbia State vice president for Advancement and executive director of the Columbia State Foundation. “We appreciate her family honoring her with this endowed scholarship.”

The endowment is an expression of the family's pride in Carter’s skill, intellect, integrity, compassion and above all, in the perseverance that has defined her life.

She has faced challenges that would have stopped many people, including the long road of recovery from alcoholism, the demands of being a young single mother and the loss of a beloved aunt to violence. Rather than being defined by those hardships, she rose through them.

Through the scholarship, the Carter family hopes to extend that same lifeline to others.

The Columbia State Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that supports and partners with the college to positively impact student success and the communities in which it serves. For more information, visit www.ColumbiaState.edu/Foundation.