Newly Introduced Scholarship at Evangelical Community Hospital Supports Future RNs

The Patricia Umbenhower Leininger Memorial Scholarship has been introduced at Evangelical Community Hospital to support and encourage nurses pursuing a Registered Nurse designation.

The scholarship was made possible by the family of Patricia Umbenhower Leininger who donated funds in her memory. Given to a member of the Evangelical workforce who is pursuing an RN designation and is in their senior year of study, the recipient is chosen by a committee based on work ethic, positive attitude, compassion, and dedication to the field.

The inaugural scholarship was recently awarded to Havilah Kendall, Certified Exercise Physiologist. Kendall is a non-traditional student who began pursuing her Associate Degree in Nursing at the Pennsylvania College of Technology to become an RN while working with patients in her current role. Upon graduation, she hopes to become a bedside nurse at Evangelical Community Hospital.

“I have always been passionate about science, health, fitness, and helping others,” said Kendall upon receiving the scholarship. “I’ve looked up to the many nurses I have known and worked with. Making the decision to return to school to become an RN was an easy one. My heart has always been driven to be part of the healthcare and clinical world.”

Kendall was hired as a Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise Specialist in 2019. After achieving her Certified Clinical Exercise Physiologist (CEP) certification in 2020, she was transferred to her current Exercise Physiologist position in December of 2020. She continues to work in that capacity full-time while completing her RN education.

Leininger’s commitment to the field of nursing is what drove her family to create the scholarship in her honor. She dedicated her career to the nursing field for more than 50 years. After graduating from the Harrisburg Hospital School of Nursing in 1962, Leininger immediately began providing patient care to her community in a nursing home in Selinsgrove while she waited for confirmation that she passed her nursing board certification.

Over the span of Leininger’s nursing career, she spent two decades at Nottingham Village, and finished her official nursing service at Central Penn GI in Lewisburg (now known as Gastroenterology of Evangelical). Post retirement she continued to be involved in the medical field, teaching medical terminology at a local business school and then volunteering at Evangelical Community Hospital.

To learn more about scholarships at Evangelical, visit www.EvanHospital.com/StudentOpportunities.