The following tribute is from Simone Terrell, daughter of Jacquelyn Terrell, and tenured faculty member at Renton Technical College in the phlebotomy technician program.

In honor of my mother, Jacquelyn “Jackie” Terrell, who recently moved on to another journey in life on Saturday, July 24th, 2021, the Terrell family would like to build a legacy by creating a scholarship for Renton Technical College (RTC) phlebotomy students.

In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests that donations be made to the “Jacquelyn Terrell Memorial Scholarship.”

My mother was a community builder and very proud of the work that I did to establish the RTC phlebotomy technician program, and she took an active role in encouraging students in their training. She became involved in the RTC Senior Days which was created to engage the Allied Health programs with the local senior population. At the West Seattle Shag facility where she lived, Jackie would recruit 12 of her fellow residents to participate and give students the opportunity to work with seniors and use their skills in a clinical setting.

Jackie knew every healthcare program and aspect of the training from medical assistant students providing wheel chair assistance, performing hearing exams, and charting blood pressures, or eye exams; to dental assistant students providing dental hygiene care instruction and denture care. Her favorite of course, was the phlebotomy students and watching them perform live skills and show off their ability to test hematocrits, glucose reading including blood types. Students elected to have live participants for their phlebotomy lab skills testing, and the seniors would gently fight over who would participate. Overall, I think it was a toss-up for the seniors between the favorite hands-on massage by the massage therapy students or lunch served by the culinary students!

These experiences created cherished memories for my mother and all the seniors she recruited and would not have been possible without the College’s leadership, my co-workers, and the wonderful community of RTC instructors.

Through these experiences the seniors felt empowered, useful, and important and Jackie recognized the valuable real-life training experience the program provided RTC Allied Health students. Having a scholarship to support phlebotomy students continues my mother’s desire to make lasting investments in the lives of others and to build stronger communities.

Jackie Terrell was known as a community builder and enjoyed recruiting her fellow Shag residents to participate in RTC's Senior Day.