Passing Down Her Calling
Gerldine Eubanks Borgeson, DIP ’68, always knew she wanted to be a nurse. “I wrote a paper when I was eight years old about how I was gonna be a nurse when I grew up,” she recalls. She came of age in an era when most women were homemakers, secretaries, teachers, or nurses, but her devotion to nursing was not due to a lack of options — for Borgeson, nursing was, first and foremost, her passion.
In 1965 at 17 years old, Borgeson’s calling led her to SMU with the support of financial aid and scholarships. “Mom had four other kids as a single parent, so it was up to me to get my education and to get it financed so that I didn’t worry her,” she says.
So when Borgeson and her husband could afford it, and later when they created a family trust, they made a commitment to give regularly and generously to SMU and included the school in their end-of-life estate planning. “If you want to be a nurse and you have the drive and passion and commitment, it is important that somebody supports you,” she declares.
Aisha Fleming, BSN ’25, one of the many recipients of the Gerldine Eubanks Borgeson ’68 Scholarship Fund award, also considers nursing a calling. “My mom was a nurse, and I was inspired by her,” she reveals. “It was a lifelong dream of mine.”
Fleming worked for over 20 years as a certified nursing assistant in acute care and as a cardiology technician at Stanford University while raising her two daughters as a single mom. “I knew I wanted to be a registered nurse, but I just didn’t know how and when I could do that,” she says.
When Fleming’s nephew was tragically killed by gun violence, her drive to become a nurse was reinvigorated. “Just watching the nurses and how kindly they cared for him, it made me want to be a nurse even more. But I honestly didn’t know how I was going to do it while having to provide for my family.”
Returning to school in SMU’s BSN program in 2023 “was hard, but more manageable” with the help of Borgeson’s scholarship, she says. “The scholarship alleviated the anxiety and pressure of worrying about how I was going to pay for groceries or afford the gas to get to a clinical site.” With gratitude, she adds, “I am truly honored and thankful for her generous support.”
Fleming echoes a sentiment similar to one Borgeson shared. “My time at Samuel Merritt gave me a solid foundation in the nursing field and taught me to be well-rounded in my patient care. It’s not just about treating the disease and fixing people up — you have to help them emotionally and physically. Taking care of the sick and people in need, it’s an important act of service,” Fleming affirms.
Long after her retirement as a nurse, Borgeson still lives by these acts of service every day. She spends time daily with her husband, who is in a memory care facility, and she says she can’t help but look after him and all of the other residents there. “Once a nurse, always a nurse,” she claims, and adds a bit mischievously, “I can still run circles around those younger nurses.”
Learn more about strategies to support SMU in your estate plan at giftlegacy.samuelmerritt.edu.
