Megan Phillips
Staff Writer
During her senior year of high school in Auburn, senior Mary McVay had no idea that she would one day end up at Troy University.
She had a scholarship to Auburn University, and then through the hand of fate she heard about Troy through a friend, and decided to look into it.
She applied, received the Millennium Scholarship through the University’s admission’s office, and to her surprise, her future had been changed forever.
Once at Troy University, McVay declared herself as a nursing major.
However, soon after that she changed her major to education, spent one week undecided, came back to education and finally decided that her path was forever marked by her calling to become a nurse.
“God has a tendency to lead you down one path, and then another,” McVay said. “I really believe that he has called me to be a nurse, and have accepted that this is what I am meant to do.”
For the first four years at Troy, she lived in Paden House on campus, immersing herself in as much of the social experience as possible while still maintaining her extensive study habits.
Since arriving at Troy, she has found her religion both comforting and connecting. She has made a family for herself at the Troy Baptist Campus Ministry, where she often goes to study now that nursing controls most of her social time.
At Bush Memorial Baptist Church here in Troy, she has maintained as much involvement as possible, working with the children’s ministry in the past, and now devoting much of her time to the Praise Team.
God has always been a driving force in McVay’s life, as she has been on multiple mission trips out of the country following her faith and helping people around the world.
For her first mission in Spring of 2007, she went to Thailand with her church in Auburn.
The following year, she went on her second mission to Paris, France, with the same church.
She has been to Africa twice. One of those times was to Malawi during the summer after high school where she spent two months helping the locals with anything from planting season to medical or educational needs.
During her second trip to Africa in 2012, McVay traveled to an undisclosed location on the Eastern side where she spent six weeks living with missionaries and teaching English in a tourist location.
McVay has a deep respect for international travel, and has always believed that everyone should take an opportunity to travel outside of the country at least once.
“One of the biggest problems I see in our culture is that we are not superior to others,” McVay said. “We need to learn to be more aware of those that surround us, and everything that we can learn from them.”
McVay is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the honor’s society for the nursing program, as well as Theta Kappa Theta, which is a university-wide honor’s society based on grade point average.
After school, she hopes to move to Birmingham, where she is now doing her practicum for the Nursing program at Brookwood hospital.
“My goal as a nurse,” McVay said, “is to care for people, body, mind and soul.”
She would like to become a neonatal and delivery nurse. However, she is not opposed to the idea of continuing her education in order to become a midwife.
“I never thought I would live in Alabama,” McVay said. “I always thought I would end up in Africa or somewhere on mission trips, but God has a funny way of working things out sometimes, and I do believe that he has always had a plan for my life. I may not know it, but it has always been there.”
