Investment in success | Halee Simpson’s Campbell journey

Scholarships allowed Halee Simpson to pursue her dream of becoming a pharmacist.

A Campbell graduate and current second-year PharmD student from Fayetteville, Simpson is the daughter of a tobacco farmer and a cosmetologist. She discovered her dream through a friend of her father, who took her on as an intern one summer while she was in high school.

“I ended up working there a year and a half,” she says. “And I fell in love with it. I liked how he was so involved in his community, and I saw the impact he had and the trust his patients had in him.”

Simpson is also a first-generation college student, and her journey so far has been new and exciting for both her and her parents. She says her scholarship not only helped fund her undergraduate experience, but gave her the freedom to consider grad school without worrying about taking on considerable debt from student loans after her doctorate.

“My life would look completely different right now if not for the generosity of donors who funded my scholarships,” Simpson told a crowd of Campbell friends and alumni in Fayetteville last spring during President J. Bradley Creed’s second speaking tour in three years. “If I thought grad school would mean taking on debt, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable continuing my education.”

Simpson says she wants to take what she’s learned at Campbell and the support she’s received and give back to underserved communities when she graduates. Her goal is a career working as a pharmacist in a small, rural community like the one she grew up in – where pharmacists can truly make a difference.

“My parents worked hard to get me here, and it feels good that [because of scholarships], I can take some of the financial burden off of them. I’m grateful to all Campbell supporters who made this possible. Their gifts have given me a sense of purpose.”

Story courtesy of Billy Liggett, Director of Publications & Campbell Magazine Editor. To learn about the Campbell Leads campaign and how to support student scholarships, visit campaign.campbell.edu.