MSU Students Share How Scholarships Helped Them Succeed
Tuition. Food. Housing. Textbooks. Transportation costs. Health care expenses. Child care. Personal and emergency expenses. When a student enrolls in a college or university, one important piece of the puzzle is figuring out how to cover these and other costs.
At Montana State, the MSU Alumni Foundation the fundraising arm of the university - regularly awards scholarships to students to help pay for their educations. In fact, for the 2023-2024 academic year, the Alumni Foundation awarded nearly 4,200 scholarships totaling $8.9 million. Those dollars helped 3,052 students cover the costs of their educations, with some students receiving more than one award. The average award amount for that academic year totaled $1,632, while the smallest scholarship was $20 and the largest was $27,000.
Individuals benefiting from these scholarships included undergraduate and graduate students representing all of MSU’s colleges. Students from more than 40 states and 26 countries received awards.
“I hear from so many of our alumni and friends who understand the impact of a scholarship on a student’s life because they, too, were recipients of scholarships and, in many cases, would not be where they are today without that timely, critical support,” said Fran Albrecht, president and CEO of the MSU Alumni Foundation. “They are grateful to pay it forward and help ease the burden for this current generation of Bobcats.”
When MSU students tell donors how scholarship support helps them succeed, they often emphasize that it allows them to focus more on their studies, with some saying that it reduces the hours they need to work while taking classes. Students also talk about the confidence boost they get from receiving a scholarship; knowing that someone believes enough in their abilities to invest in their educations can provide encouragement during challenging times. One of those students is Journey (Erickson) Colgan, who spent part of her childhood in Wolf Point. When Journey Colgan graduates from Montana State University in December, she will represent the third generation in her family to become a nurse. She will also follow in her mother’s and grandmother’s steps by serving Native communities through work with the Indian Health Service and rural health outreach programs.
“I come from two generations of Native American nurses and am more than proud to keep the tradition going,” Colgan said. “I have always loved helping people and science. This profession allows me to do both.”
Colgan is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes and grew up in Hardin. To carry on her family legacy of nursing, Colgan takes inspiration from her mother’s career.
“My mom has worked for IHS (Indian Health Service) for the majority of her career,” Colgan said. “I got most of my care from IHS growing up. It’s nice having someone from your community help you. They understand more of the background information when you come into the hospital.”
Colgan said she remembers the hard work her mother did to follow in her own mother’s footsteps.
“My mom was going to nursing school when I was really young,” Colgan said. “I remember her studying really late at night while I was coloring on her textbooks. I remember falling asleep to her typing on her computer for her nursing classes.”
Though Colgan is paying for college herself, she has had help along the way. After being accepted into the nursing program at MSU, Colgan received the John Preston and Jim Burgman Nursing Scholarship and the Paulson Scholarship. In total, those awards provided $4,500 that she was able to use toward the cost of her education. She also received a $500 American Indian Education Scholarship in her first year at MSU.
“I’m really passionate about learning and doing my best, and I don’t know if I could do this without these scholarships,” Colgan said. “They have allowed me to work less so I could study more. As a nursing student, every minute of study time helps.”
Colgan did the math. She said the John Preston and Jim Burgman Nursing Scholarship was the equivalent of her working 133 hours at a job.
“Rather than worrying about how to pay rent, I was able to study,” she said.
Before Colgan landed at Montana State, she was already preparing for her career. She worked as a certified nursing assistant at Big Horn Hospital in Hardin, helping senior citizens who needed assistance getting dressed, groomed and ready for therapy or medications. She also shadowed nurses at Billings Clinic during a nursing externship in Billings.
“It gave me an idea of what the nursing world is like,” Colgan said. “And it cemented my desire to be a nurse.” When she graduates, Colgan said she wants to focus on mental health for Indigenous and rural populations. During her coursework, Colgan had the opportunity to take a nine-week course through MSU’s Montana Office of Rural Health and Area Health Education Center on the fundamentals of behavioral health. She also got to travel and spend time in Lame Deer to see what rural health care looks like in a real-life setting. “I loved the program because they send you to reservations and you learn the fundamentals of behavioral health,” Colgan said. “I learned the basics of psychiatric medicine and more about suicide and how to screen for the risks. MSU has offered a lot of great opportunities to learn about mental health, and I tried to take every opportunity.”
After graduation, Colgan said she and her husband, Christopher, may take off on an adventure that lands them on a different reservation in a totally new state. But no matter how far they wander, they plan to eventually return home to Montana.
“My goal is to become a nurse and come back to my community and give back,” Colgan said. “I want to make sure that all my patients are seen, heard and well taken care of.”
