Samantha Nash:  

I grew up on the far west side of Chicago (a block from Oak Park) and lived with my parents, my 2 older brothers and younger sister. Living in the Austin community was so great. I played on the Columbus Park tennis team for many years as a kid. My friends in the community and I spent many hours hanging out at the park, riding our bikes, playing tennis and playing harmless pranks on our neighbors and each other. I thank God for blessing me with such a great childhood which was not perfect by any means but compared to what some young people have to deal with today I feel pretty fortunate. I attended and graduated from Walt Disney Magnet School in 1980 and was strongly encouraged to attend Whitney Young High School. Several of my friends were attending Senn HS and if my friends were going then of course I had to attend Senn as well. I attended Senn HS from 1980 to 1984. I had a great time at Senn which is probably why I didn't do as well as I could've academically because I was so busy with my social agenda. While at Senn I participated in cheerleading, track, the African American Club, Jewelry Making Club, tried out for the girls basketball team and had a short stint on the gymnastic team. My fondest memories at Senn were of the Homecoming activities, the International Festival Days and my graduation day. My long time High school sweetheart was Andre Lewis Bey who attended Senn for 1 day and then transferred and graduated from Sullivan High School. I took a lot of flack for having a boyfriend who attended our all time rival high school. Anyway, my hang out buddies at Senn were of course the girls from the cheerleading team as well as Nannette and Annette Hall, Franzetta Howard, Dwayne (Gucci)Douglas, Kelly, Edward and Eugene Rose, Percy, Mattie Bonner, James Ross, John Goss and many others. My favorite teacher was Mr. Brown who taught auto shop. In 1984 prior to graduation I joined the US Army Reserve to attend nursing school. While in a medic training school I met my husband Ken in 1985 and we were married in the fall of 1986. We have 3 young adult children: Ashley 22, Bianca 19 and KJ 16. My daughters are students at Andrews University in Berrien Springs MI and my son attends a private christian school here in Michigan. As a family we have faced many struggles but by the grace of God were are all still extremely blessed. On Aug 3rd of this year my husband and I will celebrate 23 years of marriage. After I got married in 1986 I attended many colleges taking several classes at a time while raising my young family. I graduated from nursing school in 1995. In 1999 I earned my degree in nursing. During my nursing career I have worked at hospitals, nursing homes, home care nursing, hospice, case management, pediatric nursing and most recently I managed a large Long Term Care facility. My favorite nursing job was my pediatric home care case management position. In this position I spent all day with children who were medically complex and required skilled nursing care in most cases 24 hours a day. I would provide nursing care as well as read books to the kids, go on walks, watch tv and it pretty much was like a nanny job. Having children around the age as some of my young patients prepared men...Expand for more