Mariagina Rippin Scholarship Fund
The MariaGina Cruz Rippin, RN Memorial Scholarship is lovingly dedicated to the legacy of our matriarch, who passed away following a lengthy illness on February 7, 2022 at age 57.
Born in the Philippines on June 23, 1964, Gina immigrated to the U.S. with her parents just shy of her 21st birthday in 1985. Within a few months of their arrival in Ohio, she became a nursing assistant at a long-term care facility and even took on a second job in retail to help her parents make ends meet.
Gina earned her RN from the Lawrence Memorial/Regis College Nursing Program in 1993. Despite her own unsurpassed clinical knowledge, she held herself to the same high standards as her colleagues and bosses alike while progressing from staff nurse to unit manager, floor leader and assistant director of nursing.
A staunch advocate for the highest quality patient care, Gina did not hesitate to speak out at any risk if something seemed wrong. When she required hospitalization, she then advocated for herself while using her own chronic illness as teaching opportunities for nursing assistants and other professionals in whom she recognized a shared passion for health care.
It is fitting, then, that this scholarship will be awarded in Gina’s name and considerable legacy. As a first-generation college student who learned English as a second language, she had enduring empathy for others sacrificing to make their own professional dreams a reality and an active interest in diversifying the healthcare profession to be more representative of the broader patient population.