We are pleased to announce the winner for our 2025 College Scholarship Essay Contest!!
And the winner is…Catherine McLaughlin
The Winning Essay
Survivorship’s Calling The pages of my story may appear composed of blood rather than ink or dripping in suffering, however, keen eyes pay less attention to the physical pages themselves and focus rather on the carefully crafted details. Truma to such a young mind causes each individual letter to grow foggy as the years roll by. The re-telling of the tales of my past from first-hand witnesses’ reek of fear, awe, and tragedy, but one can’t blame them, they had to witness their only child fight for her life without the ability to change a thing after all. The darkness present on the oncology floor of a children’s hospital was enough to suffocate anyone who dwelled in negativity for too long, but the overwhelming amount of hope leaves more of an impact than cancer itself. To my family, our strength derived from God, and somehow or another, we knew that He would pull us through. I know for a fact that prayer holds immense power beyond any worldly thing and that every prayer offered up for me was not said in vain. God allowed me to survive childhood cancer for a reason, and I firmly believe that He has guided me towards this purpose throughout my entire life.
February 1st, 2009, will forever remain an infamous day that I nor my loved ones can ever forget. No one could have ever guessed that recurring ear infections would have led to a diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and an extremely rare spinal cancer that doesn’t even have a name, only an assortment of numbers and letters known as CN1B5 that only three other people in the world had before me, all of whom passed away as a result of it. At four years old, I didn’t fully comprehend what childhood cancer was besides that it made me feel sick, separated me from other kids, took away my ability to walk (which I later learned was called neuropathy), warranted more sticks from needles than I liked, and came with the dreaded “white medicine” every time I needed a spinal tap.
I can still hear my ears ringing, the world spinning and taste the rusty sensation left in my mouth if I think hard enough. Seven months spent in The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia felt miles longer. I received chemotherapy for two and a half years and also had 40 blood transfusions and 40 spinal taps during that time. Losing my hair and dealing with requiring a feeding tube to eat as well as physical therapy to build my leg muscles up again added to my burdens as well. My journey had multiple lows such as when my heart stopped during one of my spinal taps and I had to be resuscitated and when my condition grew so dire that I received my Last Rites twice. Despite all of this, my biggest concern remained being isolated from the world when my immune system shriveled up to barely anything. All I could do was watch other kids I saw outside my window and wish I could go play with them like Rapunzel yearned to explore the world beyond her tower. However, my parents taught me from a very young age to always talk to God, and Jesus remained my constant companion throughout my battle and beyond. I also learned the value of positivity by focusing on other things besides the pain.
My mom read books to me as constant as the love in her heart, and reading quickly became my favorite pastime. If I wasn’t being serenaded with mystical tales, I loved doing arts and crafts, watching Disney movies, and playing with my stuffed animals, most of which were cats. Each individual event my parents have re-told to me could fill up a novel, but the central theme remains that I have been incredibly blessed by God and am very fortunate to still have an opportunity at life when I neared death’s door multiple times. Despite being in remission, my cancer left lasting effects, and I had no idea of the rough journey ahead of me. Chemotherapy had caused my teeth to shift to the right, which led to major dental issues. I required braces around my eleventh birthday until I was thirteen as well as an expander that same year I first got braces. I also needed dental surgery for two of my bottom teeth along with bottom wisdom teeth removal prior to beginning eighth grade.
Besides the pain that came along with cancer, the pain from all the work done to my mouth was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. The wires from the braces left scars in my mouth, but I learned from my parents that I should see them along with the scar from my port on my chest as a sign of strength. I still remained positive, kept constantly praying to God to guide me through my suffering, and didn’t let the pain get me down, just like I did when I was in the hospital. I had been a part of my school’s choir and theater club for a year, but I didn’t let my dental pain strip me of my dreams of performing in plays and praising the Lord in song. I also remained determined in my academics and in being a part of my church community as an altar server, lector, and aide for the children’s liturgy because I knew that if I could conquer cancer, then I could do anything I set my mind to.
My hard work paid off as I became a member of the Junior National Honor Society in seventh grade, earned multiple lead parts in several school productions, and graduated eighth grade at the top 10% of my class with many awards. I’ve been known my whole life as an old soul, but that never dawned on me until I began high school at Archbishop Wood High School. It surprisingly took me a while to begin making friends as I usually kept to myself and busied myself with my studies, which included four honors courses. Prior to the rise of the Coronavirus pandemic, I participated in my school’s annual THON to raise money for pediatric cancer and was also given the opportunity to share my story. As a person who values humility, I felt shocked with all the praise I received that night, but my shy shell finally broke after I found the courage to open myself up to my school community. Throughout high school, I debated what I wanted to pursue as a career, but there was one choice that I kept going back to: nursing. The thought of giving back to children with cancer who were just like me lit a fire inside of me, and I knew that was what God allowed me to survive my cancer for.
Thanks to my resilience with my studies, I was given multiple academic scholarships by multiple universities, and I earned prestigious awards for both English Language Arts and Science achievement during senior year at my graduation. Through all four years of high school, God blessed me with First Honors for each quarter for all four years, the opportunity to be a member of the National Honor Society, an academic achievement award for the highest overall grade for Theology III, and 8 total awards for embodying the school motto, “Coronam Fidelitas Merebit.” It still amazes me to this day how God has blessed me with all of these accolades and more, and I almost feel as if I don’t deserve it. Many would protest against my thought process, but sometimes I know not why God has remained so good to me all these years. I ultimately chose to attend Holy Family University as a Nursing major. Being on the nursing track at a college renowned for its nursing program has not come easily in the slightest, but I cannot be more certain that I am doing what God wants me to do. I have now only just officially entered the nursing program, and I know that I have a hard road ahead of me, but I know that with God and continuing to push myself to try my very best, I will grow into a successful nurse.
God has already blessed me with a Holy Family Value award for Learning, recognition on the Dean’s List for all three prior semesters, and opportunities to become a member of the National Society of Leadership and Success and of the Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society. I know that continuing to put my heart and soul into my academics will certainly help me achieve my dream career as a pediatric oncology nurse at the very place that saved my life, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. If I ever find myself struggling, I ground myself by thinking of how privileged I am to have the opportunity to have this education when so many other children are fighting for their lives at this present moment and how many of the friends I made in the hospital did not survive their battles. As hard as school is and will be, battling cancer required me to wield a sword much too large for my small hands to grasp.
As I have grown closer to God especially within the past few years, I have come to realize how God has made me passionate about the things I am for a purpose. My entire life has come full circle for me through this spiritual awakening. God has called me to pursue nursing school and become a pediatric oncology nurse to help His children through one of the worst things one can experience in this harsh world. He instilled in me a love of reading that progressed into writing so that I can help children battling cancer with stories. I have so many ideas about how I can help distract children from the pain, especially if I have to administer chemo to them or stick them with a needle. I have also wanted to become a published author for many years now, particularly in fantasy or religious fiction. I feel God pulling me not only to gain inspiration for my stories from the Bible but to do so in order to further the Gospel and to give children a world they can go to in the midst of their suffering, just like I did. Starting to act again has also become a dream of mine, and I believe that God gave me the acting opportunities He did when I was younger to bring my story ideas to the screen.
My current goal is to start up my own YouTube channel in order to create looks and even more stories for my characters. Sometimes, it is easier for children to watch something rather than read when they are in so much pain, so if I can provide a safe environment for them to turn to my characters for comfort, that would mean the world to me. Ever since my senior year of high school, I have also grown very attached to dance, especially ballet, lyrical, and contemporary dance. God has helped me to realize that I can pursue my dreams of beginning ballet and other dance classes even as an adult to show children with cancer that they truly can do anything they put their minds to. I have also found several organizations that benefit childhood cancer research through the art of dance that I am interested in becoming a part of once I graduate college and can afford to attend dance classes, such as “DanceHopeCure.” I may never get the level of doing the 32 fouettés en pointe in the Black Swan Coda but just putting myself out there for the benefit of children battling cancer who do not have the ability to dance will be more than enough for me.
These dreams may seem impossible to complete in one lifetime for some people, but the truth of the matter is that I wasn’t sure if I would ever have the opportunity to follow my dreams. Everything for me has a purpose, and dedicating my life to one of service to childhood cancer fighters and to God would be the ultimate reward. I consider my dreams less about myself and more about my fellow warriors. They embody the reason for why I have the dreams I do, because I feel that someone who has walked in their shoes before can give them more motivation not to give up on themselves and to pursue whatever dream they have. Children battling cancer deserve to dream big, they deserve all of God’s blessings. To my fellow warriors, I will be there to help you lift your sword when it becomes too heavy of a burden to carry. I will be the star that guides you through the fog, both light and dense. You have an inspiring amount of strength inside of you, and if you need even the slightest ounce of assistance in realizing that, I’ll open up the pages of my story so that you can see that kids who battle cancer have an extra special sparkle that is loved by God and treasured by all who are blessed enough to experience it.
CATHERINE MCLAUGHLIN FAQ…coming soon
1. What school are you attending?
2. What is your major?
3. What plans do you have after you graduate?
4. What are your interests and hobbies?
5. Share whatever you would like about who Catherine McLaughlin is.
Meet Our 2025 College Scholarship Essay Winner CATHERINE MCLAUGHLIN…coming soon
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