Eleanor Wasley Chaikowsky Academic Award
Established 2020
Eleanor Wasley dreamed of becoming a research scientist. However, although she graduated from J. W. Cooper High School in Shenandoah with the highest grade point average in the 1938 Winter Class, she was deprived of the opportunity to attend college in a scientific field. Women at that time were often denied access to scientific institutions, or to certain majors in universities.
As an alternative, Eleanor attended Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1942. She quickly became a head nurse of Johns Hopkins general operating rooms, but World War II inspired her to resign her position and enlist in the Army Nurse Corps. Commissioned as a First Lieutenant, she became supervisor of surgery at Schofield Barracks Army Hospital, Hawaii. After the war, Eleanor returned to Johns Hopkins and, at age 26, became one of the hospital’s youngest supervisors and instructors of operative technique. She later attended Catholic University’s School of Nursing Education in Washington, D.C.
The Eleanor Wasley Chaikowsky Academic Award was established to acknowledge a female member of the graduating class of Shenandoah Valley who has a strong aptitude and interest in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics and plans to further her education in this field.
