MLK Scholarship Winner: the Inspiring Sandra Dickson

Sandra Dickson, a junior in the Connell School of Nursing, loves to read.  She is also afraid of heights and absolutely loves shopping with her roommates.  In her down time you’ll find her listening to slow, soothing R&B, or catching up on sleep.  But most likely, she’ll be out having a conversation.
 
“I loooove, I love, I love, love to read.  I love music.  I love dancing,” Dickson says.  “And I love talking.”
 
Dickson has a tightly-knit family with a mother, loving uncle, and three older siblings, and has relatives spread all over the world.  Dickson, habitant of New Jersey, but originally from Ghana, leads a filled-to-the-brim life.
 
But there’s something more to her.

Sandra Dickson, CSON’13 and a passionate individual, wins the 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship award.

Dickson is an incredible human being, a superwoman in disguise.  Humble and extremely outgoing, Dickson is the 2012 winner of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship.
 
“I was a little skeptical about applying at first,” Dickson says.  “I’m 20 years old, I don’t know if I’m doing what Dr. King did or if I could ever measure up.”  The entire application requires the individual to reflect on how he or she embodies a sense of Martin Luther King, Jr. and is following in his footsteps.
 
Encouraged by last year’s winner, Angela Donkor, and after having heard so much about the prestigious award as a freshman from Gerrel Olivier, the 2009 winner, Dickson went for it.  She got more out of the experience than she expected.
 
“In addition to winning, which I’m happy about and honored that I won, I think the process in itself really helped me dig deep into myself and reflect on my transition here in America,” Dickson says.  The essay, one of the largest components of the application process, asked about the injustices in America and how King influenced those injustices.  Dickson based her essay on her transition from being a Ghanaian to a fourth-grader at an American school in New Jersey.  It was the first time she had ever written about this experience.
 
“I wrote about having to deal with bullying from kids who looked like me, African American kids,” Dickson explains.  “Just because I was different and didn’t speak the language that well, I was ostracized.”  She explains that she didn’t have to know who King was to fight through the experience in a way that reflected his philosophy:  through perseverance and channeling her anger in a productive way.
 
“I turned to studying, making the honor roll, being the valedictorian of my 8^th grade class,” Dickson reflects. “I didn’t fight back.”  Dickson found a piece of King inside of herself, and argues that a piece of him lies in everybody.
 
The finalists were not announced until the first week in January, even though the application process started in October.  Receiving the email with the news of her standing as a finalist was unbelievable, Dickson says. She says that being acknowledged for making a difference through doing what you are passionate about is a very humbling experience.  “Win or lose, you’ve made it this far,” was what her mother had told her after Dickson had called to announce the news.
 
Dickson, along with the four other finalists, had to wait until the award ceremony on February 10 to find out she had won.  “I instantly started crying.  I just couldn’t believe it,” Dickson remembers.  “I can’t describe to you how it felt.  It just felt so surreal.”  Her emotions, coupled with the fact that she had gone through so much in applying, meant it was a great moment.  Dickson wasn’t the only winner:  she won for Ghana, for her family, and for her friends.
 
Dickson first called her uncle, a father figure to her, to tell him the news.  “I just needed to share with him, along with my mom, that all their hard work hasn’t gone in vain, like me coming to America, and them sacrificing so much.  I just wanted to thank them and tell them that the award is a manifestation of all that,” she recalls.  All she needed in that winning moment was to hear his voice and talk to her mother.  But the one person that would truly understand Dickson’s feelings the moment she won is her freshman mentee, Patience. She, Dickson says, has her fair share of struggles, and I think she understands what it really means to strive and to really be passionate.  She would be very honored.
  
The award couldn’t have chosen a more honored and deserving individual.  Dickson is whole-heartedly involved in every aspect of her life at BC and the community around it.  She works hard; she gives endlessly, never asking for anything back but the love of the experience.  “Once you find something that you love, it’s not a chore, it’s not going to hurt, you just do it because you want to,” she says.
 
Sandra’s decision to study nursing stems from a terrible car accident in which both her uncle and mother were involved. Her mother, someone Sandra truly looks up to along with many of the other women in her family, is also a nurse.
 
“I wanted a career where you have that relationship with the patient and are with them every step of the way,” Dickson says.  She likes developing relationships with people; it’s in her nature, and her nursing clinical experiences with CSON are confirming her decision and have narrowed her field of choice to either pediatrics or women’s health.
 
As part of CSON, Dickson acts as a coordinator for Joanna Maynard, the assistant director of the AHANA student outreach program.  She is also a Keys to Inclusive Leadership in Nursing scholar.  KILN requires its scholars to participate in community service having to do with health and has sent DIckson to the National Black Nurses Association twice.  It shows the scholars that they can apply their nursing degrees to do many different things.  Dickson is currently a mentor in KILN for a freshman scholar.
 
Sandra has been a co-chair of the Black History Month planning committee for the past two years but has decided to pass it down to a successor.  She is also involved in the AHANA Leadership Council, starting out in the AHANA Leadership Academy as a freshman and then applying to be a part of the Volunteer Corps, one of the 11 departments the ALC has.  She initially served as a coordinator, helping to organize the annual trip the group does to the Mississippi-Delta region, and then became the assistant director where she played a bigger role in the logistics of the planning and the fundraising.  “That I’m not leaving behind,” she laughs.  “I plan on doing the same thing next year.”  Dickson has also served as a Point Guard for 48Hours and hopes to be a Senior Leader.
 
Freshman year, Dickson volunteered at Samaritans, a suicide hotline through the PULSE program.  “It’s intense but it was definitely worth it,” Dickson reminisces.  “I will never forget about PULSE or Samaritans.” Through this experience, she realized that most callers, of all different backgrounds, really just wanted to be heard.  “I can’t count on 2 fingers how many people actually called me and had made up their mind about suicide,” she says.  Most people just wanted to talk about what they were going through.
 
Dickson does however keep one call in mind.  At three in the morning, a young girl called to tell Dickson that she was contemplating suicide.  “She was sharing her experience about how she might be pregnant and didn’t know how to approach her mother about it,” Dickson explains. That’s when Dickson understood that for other callers, it was a last cry for help.  It also helped her realize that even though we are going through so much – that school and work can be tough – there is so much more to life.
 
Even though Dickson admits that she did not know who King was for her first few years in the U.S., the manner in which she overcame obstacles, the way she is today and what she does for others, is inspired by his essence. “That proved to me that we all have that in us, and it’s up to you to really find that essence, cultivate it, and put it out there,” Dickson says.  She thanks King for what he has done and for leading the way.