Two Arkansas Tech University professors are leading fundraising efforts to establish the Korey Brooke Heath Memorial Scholarship.
The lives of professors Dr. Karmen Goodner and Dr. Jeremy Schwehm were touched in distinctly different but equally powerful ways by Heath, who passed away May 29, 2023.
A Russellville High School graduate, Heath was a senior nursing student at ATU when brain cancer claimed her life.
That brain cancer diagnosis, given in 2022, was 10 years after Heath’s initial diagnosis. And it was during Heath’s initial diagnosis that Heath’s path crossed with that of the Schwehm family.
That first meeting occurred at the 2014 River Valley Superhero 5K. Heath, then 13, and the Schwehm’s 2-year-old daughter, Morgan, were two of three honorees at the event.
Morgan, now 13, was going through her own cancer journey at the time, when she and Heath met at a pre-race publicity event.
Morgan was struggling that day, Schwehm, ATU professor and program director of organizational studies, recalled. Morgan was feeling sick, having just received treatment. In addition, “she was not the most outgoing child and really didn’t like to be around crowds.”
Then, something happened.
“This girl we didn’t know at the time walked over to Morgan and she could see that Morgan was really in physical and mental distress,” Schwehm said.
“This little girl just came over, started talking to her, playing with her and really calmed Morgan down. What we didn’t know at the time was that this girl was Korey Heath, who was undergoing treatment for brain cancer.
“From that point forward, there was a connection between Korey and Morgan. It wasn’t like a best friend kind of thing. It was them running into each other at different events around town. And every time Morgan and Korey interacted, it was meaningful and significant to Morgan. And Korey made it that way.”
What Schwehm soon learned was that “Korey just had a natural way of reading what other people were going through…and would provide whatever they needed at the time.”
What Schwehm later learned was that Korey’s compassion for Morgan was something Korey demonstrated to so many other people on an everyday basis.
Goodner’s connection to Heath was years later, when Heath and her twin sister, Kasey, were juniors in ATU’s nursing program.
Goodner, ATU assistant professor of nursing, was unaware of Heath’s story of childhood cancer.
“How I knew her was this smart, ambitious, very kind and compassionate student,” Goodner said. “And I know it’s a cliché, but she literally lit up the room.”
Heath was the kind of student every professor wants to have, Goodner said, and especially the type of student every clinical instructor wants to have, because of the level of care and compassion she demonstrated in her clinical settings.
During that time Heath’s cancer returned.
Goodner said Heath was receiving treatments and at one point, was hospitalized as a result of side effects. But once discharged, Heath immediately jumped back into her studies, Goodner recalled.
“She never wanted to fall behind because her ultimate goal was to become a nurse,” Goodner said. Heath’s commitment to nursing stemmed from the impact she felt from the nurses when she was receiving treatment as a youngster.
Yes, care from physicians is critical, Goodner said, “but the nurses are the ones that are there 24/7; they are the ones who connect with and advocate for patients.”
Heath wanted to fill that role herself as a nurse.
“I know as a nurse, it takes a special heart and a special type of person to work with pediatrics in general, and especially in the specialty of oncology. That’s where Korey was impacted at such an early age. So that’s what she was going to do. She was going to be a pediatric oncology nurse,” Goodner said.
“The last time I spoke with Korey, she had just gotten released from the hospital. Because of the treatment she was too weak to walk at this point, her voice was very broken and shaky, very weak … but she was still very mentally driven. Her mental strength never wavered,” Goodner recalled.
“I asked her how she was doing. She said, ‘I’m doing good, I’m going to finish this.’ She was just so confident and so hopeful that she was going to be a nurse and finish this program.”
Heath received her nursing degree posthumously in December 2023, when her sister Kasey received with honors her nursing degree.
Now, donors to the scholarship fund can help honor Heath’s memory. And it is no coincidence that Goodner and Schwehm hope to meet their $30,000 goal in September, which is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
Goodner said applications for recipients can open “as early as spring 2025, with the first scholarships awarded in the fall 2025 semester, if we reach our $30,000 goal by the end of this year.”
The application process will be open to all nursing students, but a demonstrated interest in pediatric oncology from the applicants will be carefully considered. When those scholarships are awarded, they will help honor Heath’s legacy.
“This is important to me,” Goodner said. “Just meeting her for a year and seeing that strength and determination, you can’t know someone like Korey and not be inspired and want to do something, anything you can, to honor that memory.”
“One thing we realized when Korey was diagnosed again and when she passed away was that we never told Korey, or Korey’s sister Kasey, or Korey’s parents what Korey had meant to our family and particularly our daughter Morgan,” Schwehm said.
Although it’s too late to let Korey know that, Schwehm said, this scholarship is a way to honor Korey for what she did for their family. And, Schwehm added, after talking with nursing department faculty, “we quickly learned that it wasn’t just our family that had been impacted by Korey.”
Through the creation of the scholarship, “we want to not only remember Korey and honor who she was, but also assist other people who have that service mindset who want to go into the healthcare field, particularly nurses, and provide some financial assistance they might need,” Schwehm said.
Donations to the scholarship can be made at www.atualumni.com/koreyheathscholarship.
Editor’s Note: This article was written by Tommy Mumert, director of the Arkansas Tech University news bureau from 1989-2007 and currently assistant professor of journalism in the ATU Department of Communication and Media Studies.
