Findlay’s Kern Follows Motivation to Peggy Bensman Award
When Lauren Kern graduated from Liberty-Benton High School in 2021, she knew exactly what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.
Kern followed that passion to an LPN program in Lima, and now she’ll add an RN after her name when she graduates from the Owens Community College School of Nursing and Health Professions this month. A Findlay resident, Kern attended the Findlay-area Campus.
She was also named the program’s Peggy Bensman Award winner for the fall 2025 commencement. The award is one of the biggest in the nursing program, named after the College’s first Nursing department chair and presented to a graduate to recognize academic achievement, community and personal leadership, to encourage high professional standards and to strengthen the ideas and image of nursing.
Kern said one of her former teachers at Liberty-Benton, Carol Treece, encouraged her to go into nursing. From high school, she went to the Apollo Career Center in Lima, graduating with her LPN in 2023.
“My motivation throughout college was my goals for the future,” Kern said. “I have always wanted to be an RN.”
Along with a supportive family, Kern said nursing instructors Dr. Judith Waxler and Wendy Zettel were amazing during the program.
“My experience at Owens was great,” she said.
Kern has accepted a position at Blanchard Valley Hospital in Findlay, where she will work in the ICU. From there, her plans include getting her BSN, possibly back at Owens.