Verlene McNally

Military Spouse Scholarship

 

BACKGROUND

Verlene McNally was a military spouse throughout her husband’s  military career. During this time, she raised two children, supported her husband in his military career, and worked at various jobs. When she “retired” from the military, at the time of her husband’s retirement, she returned to school and completed a degree in elementary education. Education was an important pursuit for her, something she wanted for herself and for her children. In the 1990s, she became interested in the activities of the American Association for Medical Transcription, as her daughter, Kathy Rockel, became active in that organization. She subscribed to their Journal, received newsletters, and tracked things as her daughter served on the AAMT national board of directors. She was very supportive of those activities and made it her job to learn about the profession that her daughter had come to love. In 1998, she attended the AAMT annual meeting, the year her daughter was the national president, and was able to see firsthand the workings of her daughter’s professional life.

She never had the opportunity for a work at home career and so she lived with the constant changes in jobs, neighborhoods, and friends with each time the military decided it was time to move yet again. Keenly aware of the challenges faced by military spouses, she did what military spouses do, she simply packed up the house, moved her family to the next new post, and when she worked, looked for yet another job where a military spouse would be accepted, knowing their term of employment was not forever.

In 2006, Verlene passed away. As a tribute to honor her life and her commitment to education, as well as to provide an opportunity for another military spouse to find a career that is portable and can move with them, Verlene’s children have established this scholarship in her name. It will provide a small amount of assistance for a military spouse toward an educational opportunity that will help them develop a career that can carry them into a new future.

 

And the Winner is......

We are pleased to announce the Jennifer Detlefson from Virginia Beach, Virginia, submitted the 2008 winning essay! You can read her winning essay here. Congratulations, Jennifer!