Students in the accelerated nursing program in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing were recently given the opportunity to receive one of ten $10,000 scholarships from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The accelerated baccalaureate nursing program on the Boca Raton campus recently became the 63rd institution in the country to receive ten of these scholarships, which are specifically aimed to benefit students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds or underrepresented groups.
“The whole purpose of it is that students in accelerated baccalaureate programs don’t qualify for a lot of the federal aid programs, because it is their second baccalaureate degree,” says Marlaine Smith, director of the scholarship program in the College of Nursing.
Students enrolled in this fast-paced program finish their bachelor’s degree requirements in a just a year, taking 16 credits in the summer session, 19 during the fall and 20 during the spring. On top of that, they also participate in a nursing practicum, which involves working 20 hours a week during the summer and 26-30 hours a week in the fall and spring semesters.
The accelerated program is open only to students who have previously received a bachelor’s degree. But, students are dedicated to the program that will allow them to enter the work force at a much quicker pace.
Carolina Zuluaga, one of the recipients of the scholarship, moved to the United States with her family eight years ago from rural Colombia, where she saw the hardships faced by the less fortunate.
“I used to go to the farm that we had where we housed a family, and there was this kid named Javier who had polio because the guerilla groups wouldn’t allow medical assistance to anybody,” she says. “That was basically where my passion began, because I wanted to help people who don’t have access to medical care.”
After receiving her first bachelor’s degree in biology, she decided to enter the accelerated nursing program instead of pursuing medical school, and applied for the scholarship as soon as it was available.
“It is very intense. You rarely have time to do anything. You rarely have time for family or friends. You just live for the program, but it’s worth it,” says Zuluaga of the hard work that is put into completing the program.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which created the scholarship this past April, requires institutions that apply to describe the plans for their programs, including requiring them to expand their enrollments by ten people the next year. The College of Nursing also had to prove that the funds would be distributed to disadvantaged or underrepresented students.
Dax Parcells is one of the only two males to receive the grant, and chose to enter the accelerated program after finishing his master’s in psychology.
“I want to combine psychology and nursing to work with the underrepresented groups,” explains Parcells.
With the grant, he now finds that the funds have allowed him to focus solely on school rather than having to worry about working.
“I was working over the summer when we started, and it was just way too much with school Monday through Friday, and then working Saturday and Sunday. It was just super intense, so this kind of gave me the opportunity to quit my job,” Parcells says.
As part of the requirement to receive the scholarships, the College of Nursing also had to propose a project that would help students develop their leadership skills and provide some mentoring.
“They wanted to know about the diversity of the student body, the number of students that we had in our accelerated program, and how long we had had the accelerated program. They wanted us to tell about the focus of our curriculum,” describes Marlaine Smith, who helped choose the students who received the scholarship funds.
After receiving notice that the grants had been approved, the program informed students about the application process. They were asked to write a paragraph describing why they thought they fit the categories specified by the RWJF scholarship.
Currently there are 31 students enrolled in the accelerated program and, of those students, 26 applied for the grant. From those descriptions, the selection committee awarded points to students based on specific criteria – including their backgrounds and financial needs.
“We were very careful about the criteria that were established,” describes Smith. “We had six people who reviewed everything. We reviewed them independently, and then we came together, had all of the applications and gave our numbers, and the [students with the] highest scores were the ones who were awarded the grant.”
As for the next three years, the RWJF plans to give the scholarships to 1,500 universities with accelerated nursing programs.
