Cynthia Hickman, RN
It’s hard to believe that the feel-good movie "Pay It Forward" was released 12 years ago, but its message of repaying one good deed by performing three good deeds for three other people is being kept alive by Houston nurse Cynthia Hickman, RN, MSN, a cardiology case manager for St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston.
After observing and struggling through teacher favoritism during nursing school, Hickman decided "there has to be a better way" to encourage young women who may be at-risk for dropping out of school after encountering adversity. Echoing the lessons she learned from her mother to "never give up," Hickman has made mentorship and providing a positive example to new and aspiring nurses a part of her daily life.
"I promised myself that one day, after I graduated, I was going to become a mentor for students and encourage them rather than 'chop them down’ when they get things wrong," Hickman said. "In nursing I’ve found that we tend to eat our young, and I don’t like that. I decided to do something about it instead of just shake my head at the negativity and walk away."
After winning a $50,000 cash award from Johnson & Johnson in 2006 for her work with displaced New Orleans residents in Houston after Hurricane Katrina, she started the Cynthia J. Hickman Pay It Forward Nursing Scholarship. To date, she has awarded 10 $1,000 scholarships, and each recipient gets an autographed book from Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of the novel "Pay It Forward."
When asked about her fondest mentorship memory, Hickman recalled a coworker who she encouraged to get her GED so she could follow her dream of going to college. After much encouragement, Hickman said the woman earned her GED and now is enrolled in community college.
"I told her that if you have a goal, then we have to work on meeting it, no matter if it’s one step at a time or seven weeks at a time," Hickman said. "I told her I want her to do what she wants to do in life because you only have one. And that, to me, is what it’s all about. If you do just one good thing for one person, that makes all the effort worth it."
Hickman is working on her PhD at Walden University and hopes to one day work in a college setting and launch a community preventive health center.
After observing and struggling through teacher favoritism during nursing school, Hickman decided "there has to be a better way" to encourage young women who may be at-risk for dropping out of school after encountering adversity. Echoing the lessons she learned from her mother to "never give up," Hickman has made mentorship and providing a positive example to new and aspiring nurses a part of her daily life.
"I promised myself that one day, after I graduated, I was going to become a mentor for students and encourage them rather than 'chop them down’ when they get things wrong," Hickman said. "In nursing I’ve found that we tend to eat our young, and I don’t like that. I decided to do something about it instead of just shake my head at the negativity and walk away."
After winning a $50,000 cash award from Johnson & Johnson in 2006 for her work with displaced New Orleans residents in Houston after Hurricane Katrina, she started the Cynthia J. Hickman Pay It Forward Nursing Scholarship. To date, she has awarded 10 $1,000 scholarships, and each recipient gets an autographed book from Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of the novel "Pay It Forward."
When asked about her fondest mentorship memory, Hickman recalled a coworker who she encouraged to get her GED so she could follow her dream of going to college. After much encouragement, Hickman said the woman earned her GED and now is enrolled in community college.
"I told her that if you have a goal, then we have to work on meeting it, no matter if it’s one step at a time or seven weeks at a time," Hickman said. "I told her I want her to do what she wants to do in life because you only have one. And that, to me, is what it’s all about. If you do just one good thing for one person, that makes all the effort worth it."
Hickman is working on her PhD at Walden University and hopes to one day work in a college setting and launch a community preventive health center.
Chad Johnson is a freelance writer. Post a comment below or email editorSouth@nursecom.
