Mary A. Hill

Scholarship allows one student to ‘pay it forward’

Mary A. Hill, a recent Virginia Commonwealth University nursing graduate, calls herself “the bald goddess.” She hasn’t had hair since age 5, when she was diagnosed with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease in which the body mistakenly attacks the hair follicles, causing partial to total hair loss.

Being bald hasn’t always been easy, she said, but it has been a blessing in disguise because it has helped shape her into the person she is today. Hill readily admits that her baldness had a lot to do with her decision to pursue nursing.

“I know I wouldn’t be going into nursing if I had hair,” she said. “It has changed my whole outlook on life.”

In addition to having alopecia, Hill was diagnosed at age 3 with Celiac Sprue — another autoimmune-related disease that makes her allergic to gluten-based foods, such as rye, wheat and oats. Because of her illnesses and many sports-related accidents, Hill said she spent much of her youth in the hospital.

“I always hated doctors because they always had the bad news. Nurses were always there when I needed a shoulder to cry on and to help me pick up all the pieces,” she said.

As she grew up in Washington state and Nebraska, Hill was never allowed by her parents to feel different or unusual. They always made it very clear that she could do anything any other girl could do, “with less prep time and less wasted money on hair products!” she said.

Hill and her brother Carl, 31, both graduated from the VCU School of Nursing in May. Hill was accepted to the program during her senior year of high school, and her brother received his letter of acceptance soon thereafter, while he was serving in Iraq with the Air Force. He joined his sister at VCU during her sophomore year.

When Hill and her brother both announced that they would be moving to Richmond, Va., their parents decided to pack up, too.

“We’re like gypsies,” Hill said of her family. “We go everywhere together.”

Now her parents and five of their seven children live in Richmond or close by. Her brother Joseph lives with his family in Washington, and her sister, Nancy, and her family live in Texas.

Coming from such a large family meant Hill needed to look elsewhere for financial support.

For the past three summers, Hill has worked as a camp counselor for the VCU Summer Discovery Program course “A Week in Scrubs – Nursing in the 21st Century.” The program welcomes rising sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders into the School of Nursing to see the latest equipment and to explore the profession by visiting different units in the hospital and spending time with nursing students.

“Mary was wonderful with this group of middle-school children. They really bonded with her,” said Susan Lipp, director of enrollment and student services in the School of Nursing and Hill’s supervisor at the summer program. “She also provided leadership with the junior counselors who were high school students.”

Loans and part-time jobs have funded much of her education, but last year Hill received some additional support via a scholarship offered in the School of Nursing.

Hill was the inaugural recipient of the Unity Scholarship for the 2006-07 academic year. The scholarship is awarded to a deserving VCU nursing student with financial need.

Hill said she is grateful and honored to be the first recipient.

“Because of the assistance I have received, I can work less and focus more on my education, which is a huge blessing. It’s also an honor to be the recipient of a scholarship that was created with such a significant purpose in mind,” she added.

After graduation, Hill moved to Baltimore to be near her sister, Sarah, 19, who plays volleyball for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has a position in the surgical oncology unit at Johns Hopkins University, and she eventually would like to pursue a career in pediatric oncology.

In her training at VCU, Hill had the opportunity to work with many children with alopecia. The disease affects 1.7 percent of the total population, with more than 5 million cases in the U.S., according to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.

“When they see me, they instantly can tell we are the same, and we bond right then and there,” she said.

Hill aims to apply all that she has gained from her experiences to helping young cancer patients, with whom she hopes to find that same bond over baldness.

“Bald is bald,” she said.

“I know I can’t go back and thank every nurse who has ever reached out to me,” she said, “but by essentially ‘paying it forward’ I can thank them in my own way.”

For more information about the Unity Scholarship in the School of Nursing, contact James Parrish, director of development, at (804) 828-5172 or jtparrish@vcu.edu.