Jency Mitchell Scholarship

Jency Mitchell Scholarship Helps MED Families Pursue Healthcare Careers

For many employees at The MED, healthcare is in their blood. Not just theirs, but also in the veins of their children. For proof look no further than the Jency Mitchell Scholarship Fund.

In 1989, friends, family members and colleagues of life-long nurse and former Director of Nursing Jency Mitchell established the Jency Mitchell Scholarship Fund to honor her. The fund provides scholarships to MED employees’ dependents seeking higher education in a healthcare field.

The fund awards each student a maximum $1,500 per year over a total of four years, for as much as $6,000.

Betty Milam Givens, program coordinator for The MED, worked with Mitchell first in 1975 as a student nurse then as an RN. In 1978, Givens was promoted to nurse supervisor and credits Mitchell for mentoring her success.

“They used to call all the nurses who worked for Jency ‘Ms. Mitchell’s Girls’,” said Givens. “We were very fond of her. She taught me a lot about being a good nurse manager. She taught me to always be fair and honest and even though I might be friends with my staff and care personally about them, I could not let that cloud my judgment when making decisions.”

Givens daughter, April Milam, was one of the first applicants awarded the scholarship. April used the scholarship to study psychology and chemistry at the University of Tennessee (UT) in Chattanooga.

Today, the fund has 16 graduates and 11 recipients currently enrolled. The four newest entrants to the prestigious Jency Mitchell circle include Vershae Butlet, a nursing student at Southwest Tennessee Community College; Kristen Lambert, a pharmacy student at UT-Chattanooga; John Reber, Jr., a pre-med biology student at Mississippi State; and James Shellhart, a pre-med radiology student at UT-Martin.

Post first-year recipients working on degrees include Desiree Ancar, who is studying pediatric surgery at UT-Knoxville; Monica Brewer, who is studying radiology at Southwest Tennessee Community College; Mardea George, a nursing student at UT-Knoxville; Keiondra Harris, a pre-med student at St. Louis University; and Mia Spencer, who is studying pharmacy at Vanderbilt University.

Recent graduates Duncan Mallory and Rachel Rannou may not know what an amazing woman Jency Mitchell was, but they know what a difference this scholarship can make. Both women worked at The MED in their teens and during college and have parents who work there.

“I heard about the scholarship through my dad, who manages The Wound Center,” said Rannou, who completed her nursing degree at University of Memphis in May. “I used the money for my tuition throughout my schooling. It meant a lot because I didn’t have other scholarships. Now I am an RN in the trauma center where I was once an orderly, and I feel like I’m back with my family.”

Duncan, who graduated from the nursing program at Middle Tennessee State University, is now in medical school at UT-Memphis. “I relied on the scholarship money to buy my text books,” said Duncan. “My books were about $500 a semester, very expensive, so it made a big difference.”

After working at The MED during high school and college, Duncan looks forward to continuing her relationship with the hospital: “I’m really excited that I’ll be able to have clinical rotations at The Med during my residency. It will be great to see all those friendly faces.”

If you would like to donate to this extraordinary fund, please click here.