Susan Ferguson, a University of Arkansas nursing graduate student who lives in Jonesboro, recently received a Faith A. Fields Nursing Scholarship Loan in memory of Jill Hasley.

The Arkansas State Board of Nursing announced the scholarship awards in its magazine, ASBN Update. Two of this particular award were given in the state.

Fields retired in 2010 as executive director of the state board, and Hasley, who died in July 2016, worked as program director for the state board. The scholarship is forgivable as long as the recipient continues to work as a nurse in Arkansas one year for each year a scholarship was awarded.

Ferguson is a student in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing's Master of Science in Nursing program, which offers a nurse educator concentration. The degree is offered online through the Global Campus. She holds a bachelor's degree in nursing from the U of A and an associate's degree in nursing from Arkansas State University.

Ferguson works in a cardiac step-down unit at a Veterans Affairs hospital. She returned to college in 2010 to pursue her lifelong passion for nursing and to provide her son a better way of life.

After completing her master's degree, she plans to educate nursing students while remaining employed by the federal government and also seeking a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.