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In March 2020, Isabel Buckingham and Melanie Ryerson became the first-ever recipients of “FHE Health’s Hope for Healing Scholarship.” Now in its fifth year, our annual $5000 scholarship recognizes two outstanding students in the field of behavioral health, one undergraduate and one graduate student.
Where are Buckingham and Ryerson today, and what are they doing? We decided to follow up. Here is what we learned, and our findings may inspire you.
Isabel Buckingham – 2020 Undergraduate Recipient
Buckingham was a nursing major at the University of Pennsylvania when she received the Hope for Healing Scholarship in 2020. She went on to graduate with a B. S. in Nursing in 2022, earned her RN license in June of that year, and in August 2022 started a new graduate RN position in the child and adolescent psychiatry inpatient and day hospital units at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Caring for Underserved Children and Families
Today, Buckingham is working as a psychiatric nurse coordinator at the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Center for Developmental and Behavioral Health in Baltimore, Maryland. This has allowed her to serve underserved communities, a goal that she described in her application essay. She cares for children and families with “diverse diagnoses and backgrounds,” most of whom “identify as minority populations” and face “social, environmental, and/or financial stressors.” Buckingham has seen firsthand how these barriers have “resulted in cycles of failed discharges and readmissions, poor outcomes, and ultimately health disparities”—a reality that “has been both heartbreaking and galvanizing.”
More Studies in Nursing
What about that Ph.D. in nursing that Buckingham, in her application essay, said she’d like to eventually pursue? That remains an aspiration. For now, she is moving ahead with the next step on the way: a Master of Science in Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, through its Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program. Buckingham is set to graduate in August 2025, after which she hopes “to practice as a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner with children and teens in a community or school-based setting.”
Leonard Lauder Community Cares Nurse Practitioner Fellowship
Buckingham has also been awarded the “Leonard Lauder Community Cares Nurse Practitioner Fellowship.” As a Lauder fellow, she will receive full tuition and coverage of school fees from the University of Pennsylvania, with the understanding that she will participate in clinical rotations and professional activities in underserved community settings during graduate school and for at least two years after.
New and Continuing Research and Professional Interests
Buckingham’s research and professional interests “have expanded beyond eating disorders,” but she continues “to advocate for and participate in related projects. As a member of the American Psychiatric Nurses’ Association (APNA) and their Child and Adolescent Steering Committee, she is contributing to research and best practices assisting youth with eating disorders. She is also a member of APNA’s Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force and a peer reviewer for the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses’ Association.
Personal and Professional Growth Since 2020
How has Buckingham grown personally and professionally, since 2020? She said her primary career goals “have not changed,” but she has grown in her confidence that she can meet these goals.
Buckingham credited the Hope for Healing Scholarship for inspiring her to continue with her psychiatric nursing pursuits during an especially turbulent and uncertain time (at the start of the COVID pandemic).
Melanie Ryerson – 2020 Graduate Recipient
Four years ago, Melanie Ryerson was enrolled in the University of Central Florida’s counseling program. After receiving the Hope for Healing Scholarship, she went on to graduate from UCF in December 2021 with a Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and with no student loan debt. She also earned her independent license from the state of Florida as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in March 2024.
Ryerson, reflecting on her pre-COVID career dreams and reflections, was quick to note the “many curveballs” that the pandemic threw at “each of us.” Even so, Ryerson’s professional journey has remarkably followed much of the same course that she described in aspirational terms in her scholarship essay.
Supporting Trauma Recovery in Public Schools
In her original application essay, Ryerson expressed a desire to one day use her counseling degree to help underserved communities. Today she is doing that very thing as a “trauma coach” at a Title I elementary school. (Title I is a federal designation given to schools with students from low-income households.) The role, in partnership with the University of South Florida, has given Ryerson “the privilege of coaching teachers on trauma-informed communication skills” and leading student small groups that “build coping skills and resilience to cope with their trauma experiences.”
In Pursuit of the Same Dream of a “Holistic Wellness Collective”
Ryerson also has a solo private practice, “Tampa Trauma Therapists,” that serves teen and adult clients. Her hope is that it one day will “grow into the holistic wellness collective of my dreams.” She described this “holistic wellness model” for low-income communities in her scholarship essay as mental healthcare that addresses “mind, body, and spirit;” and, as community-led solutions to the mental health care barriers that low-income communities face.
Growth in Faith and Self-Understanding
In what ways has Ryerson grown in her faith and self-understanding, since she first shared these aspects of herself as a scholarship applicant?
“My understanding of myself and my faith has continued to evolve in ways in which I am better able to sit with uncertainty and curiosity,” she said, adding that she has found fulfillment supporting clients who have experienced church hurt and religious trauma. “Since we last connected, I have realized how challenging it is for individuals to find therapists who are both faith-affirming and LGBTQ+ affirming; so, I’ve found joy in being a therapist whose clients can bring their full self to therapy: doubts, questions, pain, and all.”
FHE Health is currently accepting applications for the 2025 Hope for Healing Scholarship. Find out everything you need to know to apply here.
