Every year, Tanner Health System’s volunteer services department awards scholarships to Tanner staff members — or a member of their immediate families — who are pursuing a degree in the healthcare field.
This year's recipient is Lara Boyd, a nurse technician at Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica.
Boyd, a Carrollton native, is attending the University of West Georgia (UWG) to earn a Bachelor of Science in nursing and was awarded $1,000 toward her degree.
She has been a working as a nurse tech in the emergency department at Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica since February 2020, but her career at Tanner started in 2017 after she graduated from Carrollton High School and began working as a patient safety technician.
While working as a patient safety tech, Boyd studied at West Georgia Technical College to become a surgical technologist.
She learned early on that she had a passion for working in health care and caring for patients, and she said that passion served as a catalyst for her to pursue a degree in nursing.
“I enjoy learning, whether it’s at school or on the job, and I like being knowledgeable and using that to help people,” said Boyd. “Knowing that I’m learning a whole world of new things is exciting and really motivates me.”
Boyd is expecting to graduate from the nursing program at the Tanner Health System School of Nursing at UWG in 2022, and she said she’s hoping to put her nursing skills and expertise to work for patients at Tanner.
“I am really thankful for Tanner and the volunteer services department for offering this scholarship,” said Boyd. “I feel really lucky to be working in health care, and I’m glad to know what I’m doing to care for patients now is going hand-in-hand with what I’m learning in the nursing program.”
Tanner’s Auxiliary Services Scholarship is provided by the health system’s volunteer services program and is funded through proceeds from Tanner’s gift shops and volunteer services’ jewelry and uniform sales. These funds also go toward many other programs across the organization and throughout the community, including toward the purchase of medical equipment for Tanner’s clinical teams, blankets for newborn babies in Tanner’s nurseries and more.
Follow Tanner Health System volunteers' Facebook page to learn about upcoming jewelry and uniform sales, gift shop promotions and more!
Tanner offers a variety of volunteer opportunities for adults, college students, high school students and community groups.
To learn more or to apply to volunteer at Tanner, visit tanner.org/support-tanner.