After eight impressive finalists were announced last week, our selection committee had the difficult task of choosing one undergraduate and one graduate winner of the “2025 Hope for Healing Scholarship.” They are Catalina Artuz (our undergraduate winner) and Kim Koger (our graduate winner). In the coming weeks, you’ll get to hear their individual stories in a feature blog about each of them — stay tuned for that. For now, we are excited to be able to introduce you to these two exceptional individuals!
Catalina Artuz – Undergraduate Recipient
When Catalina was 14, she received a brain tumor diagnosis. The news “shattered my life as I lost control of my right arm,” she wrote in her application essay. After emergency brain surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiation, Catalina faced the long haul of recovery and the challenge of having to relearn the most basic of tasks like tying her shoelaces.
“There were days when I thought about giving up, when progress seemed too slow, and when the weight of my experience felt intolerable,” she wrote.
The ordeal awakened Catalina to the “profound” yet often “overlooked” role of mental health in healing. She came to see that “the psychological impact of illness is just as significant as the physical struggle.” Yet, when faced with a chronic disease or life-altering diagnosis, she observed, people typically focus on their physical symptoms and downplay or ignore their mental and emotional conflicts and challenges. Catalina hopes to change this reality through education and advocacy.
During her recovery, Catalina became fascinated with the concept of “neuroplasticity,” the brain’s ability to rewire and heal itself. This drove her to learn more and have more of an impact. She founded her school’s first-ever book club dedicated to mental health and the pursuit of psychological resilience. The group grew to include 20 members and became a space where members could freely share their challenges, learn from guest speakers, and read books like The Body Keeps the Score and Nobody’s Normal.
Catalina is from Colombia and will be majoring in psychology at Pepperdine University. She hopes to become a trauma-informed care psychologist and “advocate for mental health accessibility in hospitals, ensuring that psychological care is integrated into treatment plans just as seamlessly as medication and rehabilitation.”
Kim Koger – Graduate Recipient
Kim is in her second semester at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is working toward a Master of Social Work, and as someone in long-term recovery, she is “deeply passionate about recovery, mental health, and addiction treatment.” She hopes to use this skill set to “bridge the gap between clinical social work and grassroots recovery support,” through work in addiction counseling, trauma recovery, harm reduction initiatives, and advocacy for policy reforms that expand access to substance use treatment.
Kim came to the U.S. at the age of five. The Korean American adoptee and single mother has faced and overcome many adversities, including trauma and the loss of everything more than once during past struggles with substance abuse.
Today, Kim is an avid proponent of recovery and very active in the 12-step community. She has taken recovery meetings to detox centers, treatment facilities, and multiple correctional institutions, and has served as a sponsor and in other service and leadership roles.
This same dedication to recovery and to saving lives affected by substance abuse is a recurring theme in Kim’s essay. She is completing a field placement internship with Health Brigade, where she works in harm reduction and the needle exchange program. She is involved in two recovery scholars’ groups that aim to address systemic inequities in recovery services. And, as a panel member of the five-year VCU Patient Advisory Panel study funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Kim is contributing her “lived experience and professional insights” to improve substance use treatments and recovery services (a goal of the study).
Interested in the Hope for Healing Scholarship? The 2026 application period begins tomorrow. Find everything you need to know to apply here.
