Poisson is among Top 5 in Nation to Win VA Scholarship

Chelsey Poisson, a RIC student and member of the Rhode Island Army National Guard, is among the top five students in the nation, and the only student in the Northeast, to be awarded a competitive scholarship for more than $50,000 by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

Poisson’s Squad Leader Kyle Simoni described her as a “natural leader,” dedicated to her academics, the military and her fellow veterans. She is “the driving force behind her team,” said Simoni, and “she doesn’t quit; she doesn’t accept failure.”

Three years ago, during military training, Poisson suffered a spinal injury, blowing out two discs. Due to a failure by a superior to fill out the necessary paperwork when her injury occurred, there’s been a three-year delay in processing her medical discharge. Poisson has lived in limbo ever since and in chronic pain, fearing that she’ll receive a nonduty-related medical discharge. Without a duty-related medical discharge, she would lose her tuition waiver and have to drop out of RIC’s nursing school.

Poisson’s reprieve came in the form of RIC Adjunct Professor of Nursing Diane Gerardi, a navy Vet and employee of the Providence VA Medical Center, who took an interest in Poisson and urged her to apply for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VA Health Professional Scholarship Program.

“I can’t thank her [Gerardi] enough,” Poisson said. “Every time I see her, I just hug her. After my injury, I had to move out of my mother’s apartment to live with my grandparents because they were the only ones who had the space and means to help me. If it weren’t for my grandparents, I wouldn’t be in school.”

Now the 26-year-old is assured of paying off her tuition, fees and books (approximately $20,000), from now until she graduates from RIC in May 2018. Upon graduation, she is also guaranteed a job as an RN at the Providence VA Medical Center for two years.

The only lingering sadness Poisson has is in leaving the military. Born into a military family, she said, “I loved it. It was my life. It was the career I always wanted since I was young. My mother used to say, ‘If you want to go to school, I can’t afford it. So you can either be good at sports or join the military.’”

That decision was easy. Poisson joined the Rhode Island Army National Guard a year after high school. “Being a member of the National Guard is very hard work, but I love everything about it,” she said. “It’s very tightknit. It’s like the family that everybody deserves.”

Though Poisson remains in active duty, she has been assigned to a desk job and still awaits both a medical discharge and spinal fusion surgery.

Despite not being able to walk more than 100 yards at a time, she spends an average of nine hours a day at the library studying. She also engages in nursing clinicals once a week.

Poisson said she has her mother to thank for her work ethic: “My mother’s motto has always been ‘Work Hard. Nothing is Ever Handed to You.’” Yet in working hard and expecting nothing, this soldier has received everything.