Scholarship from Healthy Community Commission Helps Reach Nursing Dreams

By the time she approached graduation from Joliet West High School in 2012, Alisha Tuning, daughter of 13-year Silver Cross Environmental Services Tech Cynthia Tuning, had overcome obstacles on her journey to becoming a nurse, landing a dream job, and pursuing her passion. The next challenge then was finding the right college, and even more difficult, finding a way to pay for it. She was accepted at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee, and got to work finding scholarships.

Alisha said a scholarship she received through a grant from the Silver Cross Healthy Community Commission helped give her the boost to move on to graduate school at Samford University, Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing, where she recently completed her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program with concentrations in emergency medicine and family practice. She graduated at the top of her class with a 4.0 GPA for her entire three years.

“We always told her education was important,” Cynthia explained, “To stay on track and always be nice to people. I am so proud of our daughter.”

After working as an RN at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Alisha recently acquired a fellowship in Emergency Medicine as a Nurse Practitioner at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina!

We are so proud of you, Alisha! We can't hear what's next on your journey!

Click here for more info about the Silver Cross Hospital Healthy Community Commission.