The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s College of Nursing & Health Sciences has named the inaugural recipients of the Dolores Bess Scholars award, established through a bequest from the estate of a longtime nursing faculty member and advocate for nursing education.
Dolores Bess, who died at 91 in 2024, spent 25 years on the university’s nursing faculty. She and her husband, William, established the Dolores C. Bess Endowed Scholarship in Nursing in 2012 to support upper-level nursing students during their clinical coursework.
After her death, Bess’ estate substantially increased the endowment, allowing the college to provide larger awards to selected students during their final four semesters, when clinical rotations can make part-time employment difficult.
“Mrs. Bess’s dream was to leave behind a legacy that would make the biggest possible impact on students,” said Lisa Broussard, dean of the College of Nursing & Health Sciences. “Her scholarship had already benefited 116 recipients since 2012, so when we received her final gift, I knew that increasing the award amount to create even deeper impact would be exactly what she would have wanted.”
The inaugural Dolores Bess Scholars are Maria Moya of Lafayette and Alyssa Theriot of Catahoula, both nursing majors who recently began their junior year and clinical coursework.
Theriot said she decided to pursue nursing after seeing the compassion of a hospice nurse who cared for her grandmother during the final stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
“I’m super grateful because my parents sacrificed a lot to get me to this point,” Theriot said. “Being chosen out of so many applicants has given me the confidence to know I belong here.”
Moya said her experience with nurses who cared for her grandmother in assisted living inspired her to pursue the profession.
“The scholarship has lessened the burden for me and my family, and is giving me the freedom to study hard, do well, and devote all my time to helping patients,” she said.
Moya, who is bilingual, said watching nurses find ways to communicate with her grandmother, who did not speak English, also influenced her decision to become a nurse.
“Being bilingual myself, I recognized I could be the person to offer reassurance and comfort to patients who might feel alone or scared due to a language barrier,” she said.