The good news couldn’t have come at a better time for Anthonesha Anguin, ’26.  

Facing one of the darkest moments of her life following an extremely personal loss, the 22-year-old from Norristown said it took all she had to finish the spring semester of 2026 from Montgomery County Community College and ultimately complete her associate’s degree in Nursing, A.A.S., that summer.

It was at that moment she learned she’d been named a recipient of the Dr. Stuart H. and Sandra K. Fine Nursing Scholarship. The $1,000 award is given to support students pursuing an Associate Degree in Nursing.

“It was surprising. I didn’t see it coming,” said Anguin, a 2022 Norristown Area High School graduate. “I saw the message and thought ‘This is not real.’ I reread it and was in shock. I was so surprised. I was appreciative of it. It felt like my hard work was seen by someone else besides my family.”

“No one knows what you’re going through,” she continued. “It was a reminder to keep going, no matter how hard things get. The scholarship helped in more ways than I can comfortably talk about. It felt like emotional, mental and inspirational support.”

A calling to help

Anguin moved to the area six years ago and attended Central Montco Technical High School where she discovered a love for nursing through the school’s health care sciences program. Yet growing up she remembered looking after ailing family members.

“I have always enjoyed caring for people— family or strangers— it gives me joy,” she said. “I figured nursing was a calling for me.”  

She enrolled at Montco in the fall of 2022 and quickly fell in love with her classes on the Blue Bell Campus.

“The instructors want everyone to pass,” she said. “They want you to understand the material.”

She made the Dean’s List, which gave her confidence to keep going with each semester.

As she grieved her personal loss, Anguin said she leaned on the staff in the Wellness Services for mental health support. The free services are available on both the Blue Bell and Pottstown Campus to all students and includes everything from mental health support and emotional well-being to physical health, stress management, and access to essential resources like food assistance, parenting support, and housing connections.

“Montco provided a lot of support,” she said. “I was able to recover. It was a journey. Wellness Services helped me a lot. I was able to complete the semester.”

In the Nursing program, it felt like reading chapters of a book, she said. Each new chapter built on the previous one to tell the full story.

“I enjoyed the labs in the Health Sciences Center,” she said. “It gave us hands-on experience. Some of the simulations were insane but we loved it. We learned a lot.”

“My clinical experience definitely prepared me and increased my confidence,” she continued. “It tests your resilience. You need to be resilient to make it through nursing school. It’s not easy. It’s hard.”

That hard work paid off and she was accepted into the honor’s clinical program for the last semester of the Nursing program.

Outside of school, Anguin worked at the Blue Bell Country Club as a food server and bartender. The work schedule perfectly complemented her nursing schoolwork. Currently she works as a Bayada Home Health Care aide and care worker at The Meadows at Shannondell.

“At Shannondell, I help residents with activities of daily living- bathing, eating, cleaning stuff, normal day-to-day things,” she said. “I’m more of an aide or tech. We check vital signs.”

At Bayada, her work is similar but done inside patients’ homes, she said.

“These are elderly people I care for,” she said, “I try to keep them as independent as can be.”

A bright future

Anguin plans to pursue a job as a registered nurse at Rehab at Shannondell, she said.

“It’s a great place to start as a new grad,” she said. “You’ll see so much and fine tune time management and clinical skills to be successful as a nurse.”

From there she wants to pursue a bachelor’s degree before starting work as a nurse in a hospital. Ultimately, she’d like to become a nurse practitioner. In the meantime, though, she wants to thank the Fines for their generous support of her future.

“Their scholarship meant a lot to me. It helped financially and physically. It helped to relieve some stress from the financial burden of school,” she said. “I want to thank them for having the scholarship. It’s motivating. It gives us hope and strength to keep moving forward. People could be going through anything, and the scholarship could help them take that next step. The scholarship gave me a kickstart to do it in a better way. I definitely appreciate it as a student.”

Consider helping a student like Anthonesha Anguin by making a donation to the Montgomery County Community College (PA) Legacy Fund. The Legacy Fund is the official charitable foundation supporting Montgomery County Community College by advancing student success, educational excellence, and community impact through philanthropy. The Legacy Fund connects donors with meaningful opportunities to invest in scholarships, innovative programs, campus initiatives, and the College’s greatest needs. Every gift helps expand access to education and creates lasting opportunities for current and future Montco students. For more information, contact the Legacy Fund or call 215-641-6350.