As the first graduate of the Joplin campus at Kansas City University (KCU) to establish a scholarship, Jordyn Watts, DO, MBA (COM 2022), is giving future students something she knows can make all the difference: the support of someone who understands what they're going through.
Just three years after graduating from medical school, she and her husband, Dylan, created the Raymond Michael Watts Perseverance Scholarship in memory of his father, whose message to everyone around him was simple: Never give up.
For Jordyn, the scholarship is deeply personal.
She understands what it means to start over in an unfamiliar place, navigate loss during an already demanding season of life and lean on others for support when things become difficult.
"Hard knows hard, and we've been through it," she said.
Originally from New York, Jordyn arrived in Joplin with only the belongings that would fit in her car. She knew no one in the area and had no idea what life in southwest Missouri would hold, but she immediately felt a sense of belonging when she visited KCU-Joplin.
That feeling stayed with her.
During medical school, she met Dylan, who was pursuing his doctoral degree in nurse anesthesia at nearby Missouri State University. Together, they built a life from the ground up while managing the intense demands of their respective programs.
Then, in December 2021, their lives changed.
During their final year of training, Dylan's father, Raymond Michael Watts, died unexpectedly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Life doesn't wait for you to finish medical school, and this made us realize just how much life we'd pushed aside," Jordyn said.
Even as they studied for board exams, prepared for residency and completed clinical rotations, they spent every weekend making the nearly 10-hour round trip from Northwest Arkansas to Northwest Missouri to help Dylan's mother and grandmother run the family farm.
It was exhausting, but for them, there was never any question about what needed to be done.
That same spirit of service inspired Dylan to establish a $500 scholarship at his alma mater in memory of his father, using his own money to support a future health care professional.
"I really don't even have the words to describe how selfless Dylan is," she said.
He continued the scholarship in the years that followed. In 2025, he encouraged Jordyn to do the same at KCU.
Within months, they signed a pledge agreement to create the Raymond Michael Watts Perseverance Scholarship, making Jordyn the first KCU-Joplin graduate to establish a scholarship.
The award will support a KCU student in their second, third or fourth year who has overcome significant obstacles while pursuing a medical education.
For the pair, that mission is about far more than financial assistance.
It is about honoring a man who believed that difficult circumstances should never define a person's future.
"When life got hard, Raymond never gave up. He always encouraged others around him to do the same," Jordyn said.
That lesson has become the foundation of the life they’ve have built together.
Today, Joplin is home.
The couple both serve patients at Mercy Hospital Joplin, where Jordyn is an emergency medicine physician and Dylan is a certified registered nurse anesthetist. They recently welcomed their first child and have no plans to leave the community that helped shape them.
"We've built a life here together," she said.
That life now includes an investment in students they may never meet, but whose journeys they understand all too well.
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