Joshua Grant

To call Joshua Grant ’20, a self-starter is to grossly understate this 18-year-old’s drive and determination. The Highland Falls, N.Y., resident will enter Mercy’s School of Health & Natural Sciences in the fall with an eye toward pediatric nursing. He is eager to begin, "I'm hungry for more! Hungry to reach a whole new level of my education, a vast amount of knowledge.”

An avid reader who unabashedly claims to “love books and studying,” Grant recalled his fourth-grade science teacher who “had us do puzzles or watch movies about dinosaurs” during class time. “I thought, this isn’t learning.” He asked his mother for a few age-appropriate science books to read on his own. “I taught myself science that year,” he said.

His passion for the sciences didn’t stop there. In high school, Grant aced his AP Biology’s immunology unit, planting an idea about his future. “I figured the medical field was my best bet,” he explained.

Quietly encouraging him were his mother, Reneer, and her life partner, Ingrid, a VA hospital nurse. “They both believed in me, and Ingrid was always pushing me to study,” he recalled. His father, who owns a sales company in California where Grant worked the summer before starting college, is equally supportive.

Grant’s do-it-yourself education days are behind him.