Claudia Booker Memorial Midwife Scholarship

Dear Friends,

Back in 2012 when she found out about our Mercy In Action Grand Challenge scholarship offer, Claudia Booker wrote her friend Vicki Penwell the following email:  “When I received an e-mail about the Mercy In Action full scholarship program, I immediately wrote Vicki an e-mail entitled, ‘My heart is singing.’ Those are no small words for me. It was as if pieces of various midwives’ and future midwives’ dreams and the wishes of their respective hearts were being shared across this planet and were finding ways to make these dreams come true. Women of color in places too numerous to list had been praying ‘for a way to be made clear’; midwives of conscience and an undying commitment to saving mothers and babies were scratching their heads and counting their pennies and asking ‘for a way to be made clear.’”

That clear path opened the way for a young woman named Sumayya Sulaiman, who was awarded the scholarship in 2015. She excelled in our midwifery school and graduated with distinction, and later joined our fold as faculty. Sumayya’s warm heart and enthusiasm are contagious, and she embodies the vision behind this scholarship. When Claudia passed away, we named our Mercy In Action scholarship in her honor, and Sumayya took her place as our scholarship coordinator. The picture in this report shows Sumayya listening to Claudia's lecture while a scholarship recipient at Mercy In Action College of Midwifery.

It is all about passing it on and opening the path for the next dedicated midwives.  This scholarship continues to be a pathway for many student midwives. We have graduated a large number of scholarship recipients who are now CPM midwives in their communities. Currently, we have three recipients of this scholarship enrolled in Mercy in Action College of Midwifery's full four-year Bachelor or Science degree who are on track to graduate within the next two years.  And we continue to award the NARM Prep course scholarship to dozens of qualified students from across the USA who are ready to take the NARM board exam. 

Thank you for supporting this special scholarship; you, too, are a part of the "way" that is now made clear to many through this generous scholarship! 

With Gratitude,

Jenny Fox

Links:

• Claudia Booker Memorial Scholarship