玛莎所在, M.A. ‘08, EDSP ‘13 decided to become a counselor after working in libraries for 38 years. 她与咨询心理学教授约翰娜·尼尔森博士建立了有影响力的关系，并向威尼斯人娱乐城捐赠了约翰娜·e·尼尔森心理学多样性和勇气奖学金。
“I read an article that mentioned that in midlife one of the ways to ward off dementia is to do something completely different with your life,” Childers says. “I remembered that in high school I’d wanted to be a counselor, so I thought I’d pursue that.”
60个小时的学术工作似乎是一项重大的承诺，但蔡尔德斯下定了决心。
“Once I started the program, I understood why you would need that much coursework. There’s a lot more to counseling than meets the eye.”
在学习期间，蔡尔德斯选修了约翰娜·尼尔森博士的一门课。学期结束时，尼尔森带着她的丈夫和双胞胎孩子来见她的学生。
“I just thought that was really nice,” Childers says. “After that I asked her to be my advisor. It was totally spontaneous, and she said, ‘yes!’”
It turned out that Childers’s instincts were good.
“Johanna never steered me wrong,” Childers says. “There were times that she made suggestions and I was unsure. 比如，她建议我选老年学。 And I said, ‘I am old!’ But she was right. I took two classes, and they were very valuable.”
柴尔德斯决定以一种有趣的方式来纪念尼尔森，他设立了约翰娜·e·尼尔森心理学多样性和勇气奖学金。
“It’s the first thing I do at the end of the month – figure out my income and what I’m going to do with that 10 percent. 不用只考虑自己的感觉真好。 I’m thinking about others, which is really healthy.” —
“I donate 10 percent of my income every month,” she says. “I’ve worked in library science and as a counselor. I don’t make a lot of money, but I realized a few years ago that I could set up an endowment and that would honor people who are important to me and provide more security to the organization. A little bit every month adds up.”
孩子们喜欢这种做法，因为这是她专注于帮助别人的表现。
“It’s the first thing I do at the end of the month – figure out my income and what I’m going to do with that 10 percent. 不用只考虑自己的感觉真好。 I’m thinking about others, which is really healthy.”
Nilsson was surprised by Childers’s gift in her honor.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I had a big impact,” Nilsson says. “Martha is fun to work with. 她是一个非传统的学生，经常旅行。 她的善良令人难以抗拒。 I’m very honored by Martha’s gift.”
Childers和Nilsson一起制定了奖学金的参数。 尼尔森经常与难民或残疾学生一起工作，这些学生必须更加努力地实现自己的目标。 For this reason, the pair settled on including “diversity and courage” in the name of the scholarship.
“We both agreed that we wanted to encourage and provide opportunity to students who are not ‘set up’ to get an undergrad degree,” Nilsson says.
有关捐赠和其他方式支持威尼斯人娱乐城学生的更多信息，请访问威尼斯人娱乐城基金会，或与Angela Machetta联系amachetta@umkc.edu。