Lindsey Hidenrite knows firsthand about hope, determination and foster care. They forged her life’s unlikely journey through college to become a Class of 2018 D.V.M. candidate at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and its first Nicoletti Florida Opportunity Scholarship recipient.

Her childhood, shaped by years of being in the foster care system in Kentucky, gave Hidenrite a personal understanding of fear, abandonment and neglect experienced by the animals she helps today. Separated from family and passed from household to household through no fault of her own, her only trusted companion was her cat, Kandie.

“I was known to get in trouble for reading under the covers past bedtime,” Hidenrite said, laughing. “But, I always loved learning and had phenomenal teachers who gave me the encouragement to keep going.”

Hope eventually brought her to be under her grandparents’ care in Jacksonville, Florida, where she could attend a nationally-ranked college preparatory high school. Her love of reading and the sciences, combined with determination, led to her undergraduate admission to UF with one year of college credit already completed.

“My only constant in life was school,” said Hidenrite. “Knowledge became my power and helped me learn my true potential, regardless of whatever expectations my past placed upon me.”

Volunteering at the Jacksonville Zoo while in high school introduced Hidenrite to animal health and influenced her to pursue her bachelor’s degree in zoology. Soon she began volunteering with agencies such as Gainesville Pet Rescue and Helping Hands Pet Rescue. The first in her family to attend college, she was admitted to UF in 2007 through the Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars Program that made her college dream possible.

Like Hidenrite, Paul Nicoletti, D.V.M., M.S., a professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the College of Veterinary Medicine, had never forgotten the scholarship funding that made college financially possible for him so many years ago, as a new student. Remembering how the gift spurred him to work hard in school, he had contributed to the Machen Florida Opportunity Scholarship and endowed several scholarships at UF, resulting in more than 12 student scholarship awards.

It was in 2013 that Hidenrite, now a UF alumna, and Nicoletti first met, neither one guessing the bond that was to grow between them. UF hosted a Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars celebration luncheon for its major donors and recipients like Hidenrite. At the luncheon, Nicoletti’s $1 million pledge was announced for a new graduate-level scholarship, the Nicoletti Florida Opportunity Scholarship. Modeled after the Machen fund, his endowment would ultimately provide tuition assistance for students of veterinary medicine who are the first generation in their families to attend college, and who demonstrate financial need.

Hidenrite had begun working as a veterinary technician and discovered Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at UF. Having achieved one lifelong dream of college, she began thinking about taking the next step in her educational journey to study veterinary medicine. Because of her love of shelter medicine, Hidenrite applied only to UF for her professional degree program in veterinary medicine.

“I wanted the doctor of veterinary medicine degree, and I also wanted the certificate in shelter medicine,” said Hidenrite. “The University of Florida was the one place I could get both at the same time.”

She was accepted to the UF College of Veterinary Medicine beginning fall 2014. Seeking a professional degree was a big step for Hidenrite, who describes herself as frugal and conscientious about spending. She had to work hard for the simplest things in life that others may have taken for granted — and funding her education was always a very big concern.

During her first year at the college, Hidenrite visited Nicoletti’s office from time to time to share her enthusiasm and progress with her mentor. She recalled his support, and how he made a special effort to come across campus to hear her presentation on shelter medicine, even though it was outside his own field of study related to healthy livestock, public health and food safety.

Nicoletti’s death in January 2016 came unexpectedly while he was establishing his endowed scholarship, but he had already provided ample funding to make the first award, which would help pay for about 70 percent of tuition. Attending his memorial was bittersweet, but Hidenrite was grateful to meet his family and express her gratitude to them personally for Nicoletti’s contribution to the award she had received as an undergraduate student. She shared with them her memories of how she first met the professor and his continued mentorship as she began her studies in veterinary medicine.

That spring, Hidenrite proudly attended the college’s professional coating ceremony, marking the successful completion of her second year of veterinary training. She was not prepared when she suddenly heard her name announced as the first-ever recipient of the Nicoletti Florida Opportunity Scholarship.

“I had no idea that his scholarship would be presented at the ceremony. Emotions swept over me as I walked onto the stage to receive Dr. Nicoletti’s scholarship,” said Hidenrite. “All I could think of the whole time was ‘I wish he was here, I wish he was here!’ I wanted so badly to thank him in person.”

“Connecting with Dr. Nicoletti’s family meant a lot to me,” Hidenrite said. “Now, I had their faces to recall as I relayed my overwhelming sentiments in a thank-you letter.”

In 2015, the college established the dean’s scholarship initiative to address student loan debt by increasing scholarship support to many more students like Hidenrite. Nicoletti, again, had championed the dean’s call with a challenge to match all donations to the UFCVM Dean’s Scholarship Endowment Fund, up to a total of $100,000. Alumni of the college, students and others have answered the call, and his goal has been more than met.

Hidenrite hopes to meet future Nicoletti scholarship recipients who, in turn, will benefit from his generosity as she has. She wants them to know about the professor behind the gift — and how much he believed in students.

“No one is ever meant to go it alone, and Dr. Nicoletti will forever be a part of my story and my legacy — and so many more stories to come,” Hidenrite said.