When it comes to finding out about minority nurse scholarships, an important question to think about is, what exactly constitutes a minority? At first when people hear the word minority, they tend to think in terms of ethnic groups, and backgrounds. But if we are to be totally fair, ethnic groups are not the only minority in the United States, and they aren’t even the only minority in nursing.
Included in this list are some scholarships that are representative of those “other” minority groups in nursing. When it comes to college, nursing students should avail themselves of every opportunity they get. College can be expensive, especially for nurses in advanced degree programs. Nurses who are enrolled in advanced degree programs can find alternate sources of funding in their area of medical expertise. Every little bit helps.
Minority students who work in nursing are allowed to apply for scholarships through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This program was initiated to help promote increased diversity in the field of nursing. Awards through this program are administered by the school the nursing student is attending. The financial aid office will have more information.
The American Indian Graduate Center offers scholarships and other financial aid programs to Native American students. This includes the Gerald Peet Fellowship which is awarded to those students in medical related fields such as nursing. They also offer the Ruth Bronson scholarship award in the event that the pool of available nurses is low, which it almost always is.
Kaiser Permanente is a company with its eyes to the future and to diversity. They offer several nursing scholarships to minority students. There is the Kaiser Allied Healthcare Scholarship, which is available to any minority student enrolled in a two or four year nursing degree program. They also offer the Health Professions Scholarship Program for those who wish to pursue advanced degrees in nursing and health care.
There are many other charitable organizations and big companies who want to give scholarships to minority students. The schools themselves want to increase their student body, so will also have programs and scholarships available. Sometime alumni offer them, other times civic minded citizens do. The point is, there are scholarships out there, and what is listed here is only a small portion of what is actually available. No there aren’t millions of dollars in unclaimed scholarship money laying around, like those reports on television. But there are plenty of funding sources available, both public and private, that often get overlooked.
View the whole list for minority nurse scholarships here.