Gigi Beninati ’24 is a registered nurse with a great job at a family medicine outpatient clinic. But there was a time when Gigi wasn’t sure she could even afford nursing school. Then the Promise Scholarship Program brought her to USM… and when she struggled during the pandemic, Promise helped her stay the course.
“In my sophomore year, Covid was really intense. We weren’t fully back to school. We were living on campus, but we had virtual classes…it was hard on my mental health. I thought I would have to take the semester off, and I worried about losing my scholarship. So, I reached out to my advisor. Daniel helped me decide to go part time and managed to keep everything going for me.
I moved back home that semester, and when I came back, my nursing labs were in person again, and it was great. I don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t have the mentoring support, the flexibility, and the resources to keep me going.
It’s one thing for a scholarship program to help get students like me into school, but with Promise there are a lot of extra factors that help you thrive, get that degree, and have a future.”