Congratulations to Rhianna Crosthwaite, awarded the 2021 Leneen Forde Zonta Scholarship.

Rhianna is in the final year of study for a Bachelor of Midwifery at Griffith University. A mother of seven children, she has wanted to be a midwife all her life and she now can accomplish her dreams.

“I would like to start by thanking the members of Zonta and Leneen Forde for the opportunity provided by this scholarship,” Rhianne said.“I have wanted to be a midwife my entire life. Leaving school, I started a Bachelor of Nursing with the plan to go on to midwifery postgraduate study. After 12 months my then immature self, decided to drop out in favour of a paying job, thinking I would return to study once I was living independently. At 19 I married and then the following year had my first child.

“I quit my career in medical administration management and 12 months later enrolled into the first year of a Bachelor of Social Work to get a ranking high enough to get into the highly competitive Bachelor of Midwifery. The day I got my acceptance email into midwifery was one of the happiest of my life!”

Rhianna, her husband and her family – her daughters range in age from 4-22 years old - have sacrificed a lot for her to get to this point but she is determined. Now in her final year of study, she has followed a Midwifery Group Practice midwife full-time, attending all antenatal appointments, births and postnatal appointments for the 35 women she has a continuity relationship with. 

The Leneen Forde Zonta Scholarship offers $2000 is offered to a female who is a full-time student, enrolled in an undergraduate degree program at Griffith University Logan Campus, had successfully completed the first three semesters of her degree program with good academic standing, and could demonstrate that they were in significant financial hardship.

Rhianna said: “This scholarship has made a huge difference in my life so that now all I have to worry about is finishing my final assignments, working with my preceptor midwife and applying for graduate midwife jobs.  My family thanks you all.”