Mary Ann Bickerdyke was a woman who cared for and nursed wounded soldiers in the Civil War. Born on July 19, 1817, she displayed courage and humility when she worked even from an astonishingly young age, taking time out of her own life to help others, and that’s really inspiring to me. She was fearless too, paving the road for many, many other female role models in my life, such as Rosa Parks and Malala Yousafzai. She was one of the first women to make a huge difference in history by helping so many people in a time when employment was scarce. I also really admire how she took pride in her job, never boasting or slacking off. Although she was a woman, she outranked many of her male colleagues in her job, healing and helping more people than many of the other workers in her practice.

Bickerdyke saved countless soldiers’ lives on the battlefield by using her boundless knowledge and quick thinking, which is a very strong asset in the field she worked in. She blazed a trail in women’s rights and made it clear that women could do anything they put their minds to by transforming messy, cluttered war hospitals into clean, organized, life saving institutions that really helped improve hospital conditions around the world.

My art piece is made up of a watercolor base with a charcoal drawing of Bickerdyke herself holding her prized stethoscope that she used to save lives. At first, I felt like I should make it so Bickerdyke was holding her own heart, but that distracted slightly from the idea I was going for. Then it hit me. My research led me to the conclusion that she, herself, was the embodiment of heart, putting it into everything she does for others, from simple actions like tending a wound, or even bringing a fallen soldier back to life. Her stethoscope is like a beacon in a way, and I used it to shine light on everything she’s done and everything she went through to help soldiers. The soldiers loved her so much and appreciated everything that she’d done that they even referred to her as “Mother Bickerdyke,” because she was a motherly figure to them.

I want people–especially girls–to see this artwork and know that they can do anything. In the past, people looked down on women and saw them as “less than.” I want people to know that they can be like Mary Ann Bickerdyke. As she once said, “it was hard, very hard, to leave my home and children, but the way opened for me, the work seemed to come to me to be done, and God gave me strength to do it.” So don’t turn down a chance to help people. Help your community. Be like Mary Ann Bickerdyke in the sense that anybody can do anything, especially make a difference in someone’s, or many people’s, lives. Be strong. Be like Bickerdyke. Strive to be “greater than.”