Local nurses raise money for Hancock College scholarship to give back to future nurses

SANTA MARIA,Calif.-

A group of local nurses raised money toward a nursings scholarship through the Hancock College Foundation.

“This is a meaningful scholarship to give back, ” said nurse and doula Zabrina Cox.

Zabrina Cox is a nurse who wanted to honor her retired boss Charley Ault.
She started a scholarship in her name and managed to raise the money for up and coming nurses.

“Currently we have a nursing shortage and it's imperative to give back in order to take care of our community,” said Cox.

Hancock College Foundation is a private non-profit that partners with Hancock College to provide hopeful students the means to get an education.

“Every year the Hancock College Foundation will give away over a half a million dollars in scholarships, just to Hancock students,” said Hancock College Foundation Executive Director of College Advancement, Jon Hooten.

Cox started raising the money in a grass roots effort on Facebook, it then blossomed into the scholarship. Ault spend much of her career as a nursing director at Marian Regional Medical Center and also worked at French hospital. The nurses under her helped Cox fundraise out of admiration for Ault.

“It is a complete honor. I have been nursing for 46 years and I have enjoyed every single day of it,” said retired local nurse Charley Ault.

“We had about 26 donors, and we raised $1340.00,” said Cox.

The Charley Ault Scholarship is available to any Hancock nursing student with an emphasis in Maternal Health.

“It makes a huge difference in covering the basic tuition and fees, and often times exceeds above the cost of tuition that is needed,” said Hooten.

Ault says this is an opportunity to make sure those passionate about the field can follow their dreams.

“Anyone that wants to go into nursing, I encourage it and I am very happy to be a small part of helping them to do that,” said Ault.