Nursing scholarship’s price is invaluable
May 10, 2025
A retired nurse, Price is the proud granddaughter of immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island from Russia. Like her parents and grandparents, she was determined to achieve, and she went on to become the first in her family to earn a college degree, eventually receiving an associate’s degree, two bachelor's degrees, a master’s degree and a nurse practitioner's certificate.
“My mother valued education, and I enjoyed learning,” said Price, “so I kept on getting degrees until she finally told me, ‘You have enough degrees now. You can stop.’”
Price’s nursing journey began when she earned her associate’s degree in nursing at the beginning of the Vietnam War. She worked as an emergency nurse in New York City until she moved to Richmond in 1982, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in nursing on the MCV Campus.
“I was a nurse for 20 years before I came to MCV, and I thought, there’s nothing else they can teach me,” said Price, who currently lives in Fredericksburg, Va. “I’m grateful to MCV because the bachelor’s in nursing program was transformational, and the biggest impact was learning how to do care planning — good care planning brings you to a good diagnosis.”
Judith Price named a scholarship for her parents, Evelyn and Isidore Price, with whom she is pictured in this 1950s photograph of the family in Queens, N.Y. (Courtesy photo)
Her experiences as a student inspired Price to make a blended cash and planned gift and establish the Isidore and Evelyn Price Endowed Nursing Scholarship for graduate students at the VCU School of Nursing. The scholarship is named in honor of her late parents who supported all her educational pursuits.
She hopes the gift will encourage nursing scholars to never stop learning. Price recognizes both the value of education and the importance of having financial freedom in education. Aside from tuition to earn her psychiatry nurse practitioner’s certificate, all her education over the years was defrayed through tuition-free colleges or by her employers.
“I’ve always had as much education as I’ve wanted, and it didn’t cost me anything,” she said. “Now I would like to contribute to somebody else on that journey and allow them to make the most of their time as students.”