Peggy Bensman Award Recipient Eliza Hummel Finds Success, Meaning in Nursing
Eliza Hummel remembers her grandmother as a compassionate and caring person with a “radiant personality.” She also happened to be a nurse, so those personality traits and that profession became entwined for Hummel.
As a graduate of Owens Community College with an associate degree from the Registered Nurse program, Hummel hopes to carry those same traits into her professional life.
She’s already off to a great start, being named the Barbara Rood Student Choice Award and Peggy Bensman Award recipient. As one of the top awards at Owens, the Peggy Bensman Award is named after the college’s first Nursing department chairperson and presented to a graduate to recognize academic achievement, community and professional leadership, to encourage high professional standards and to strengthen the ideas and image of nursing.
Hummel did many things for her class, including starting a student-led Facebook group where she could post links to extra resources, homework reminders and the group could collaboratively answer questions.
“Starting in the first semester, I kind of took control of our class, like a mom,” Hummel said. “I talk a lot, so they know I’ll speak up for them.”
Being a mom comes naturally to Hummel—she has four children. Balancing the responsibilities of motherhood with being a student and working as a certified nursing technician at Wood County Hospital wouldn’t have been possible without the help of her mom, Candy Downard, who Hummel said “set herself aside to fill in all the gaps.”
“(My children) have prepared me to be the best multitasker ever,” Hummel said. “I’m very disciplined in my academics. It’s easy for me to transition from taking care of them to taking care of my own responsibilities.
“I couldn’t have done without my mom and husband helping. It’s too much to balance for one person.”
Before finding her calling as a nurse, Hummel said she “had to learn what my path was.” She was in criminal justice and worked in a correctional facility. When she realized that wasn’t what she was called to do, she started studying social work, but that wasn’t the fit, either.
Then she remembered her grandmother, a labor and delivery nurse.
“I wondered what else was out there where I could have one-on-one immediate impact, because that’s what I was craving, the direct contact with people,” she said.
She’s accepted a position as an emergency room nurse at Wood County Hospital, where she’s worked as a technician for more than a year.
Hummel, of Bowling Green, did all of her class and lab work at the Owens Findlay-area Campus. She started at a larger area university, but she felt like a number and was always on her own. At Owens, the professors and fellow students are invested in everyone’s success.
“It’s like we’re a little family,” she said. “Everybody is helpful. A lot of the professors … (you can) text or email and you’ll get an immediate response. Even peer-to-peer just feels like everyone is more approachable. Everyone is here for the same reason.”
Published April 2025