July 27, 2010 | An executive from a Texas-based foundation that has awarded nearly $100,000 to help the UAMS College of Nursing provide financial assistance to students from rural areas made a visit to the campus July 27.

C. Edward Keller, chief operating officer of Beaumont Foundation of America, met with UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, MD, and College of Nursing Dean Claudia Barone, EdD, RN, during his visit. Since 2006, the Beaumont, Texas-based foundation has awarded $95,000 in grants to the college for financial assistance to students, especially those in rural south Arkansas and east Texas.

“The Beaumont Foundation of America funding allows the College of Nursing to reach out financially to assist students with their educational expenses and emergency funding,” Barone said. “Without this source of funding, we could possibly lose students from those rural areas of the state that bring much diversity to our program.”

Keller also met four nursing students who received scholarships funded by the foundation.

Latoya Young, an Air Force veteran working toward her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (BSN), said she thought she would have to work full time in addition to school. Her scholarship has allowed this single mother to cut back to part time, and given her more time with her 4-year old son and for studying.

“I worked as an emergency medical technician in the Air Force and seeing the nurses in the hospital and in the field left no question about what I wanted to do,” Young said about her decision to enter nursing school.

Another recipient, 40-year-old Relanda Mason, said she hopes to continue her studies after she completes her BSN and earn a master’s degree.

Keller said he was pleased to hear the students’ stories.

“We are proud of you and pleased to know that we are able to help,” Keller said.

The foundation’s grants fund scholarships targeting first generation nursing students from medically underserved areas, especially minority applicants; financial incentives for those who make a commitment to stay as faculty in nursing education upon graduation; and for emergency grants to students experiencing a crisis that would have otherwise interrupted their education without some financial assistance.

The foundation’s grants have funded more than 60 scholarships and provided for emergency loans to students for items that included textbooks and uniforms.

Of the 29 Beaumont Foundation scholarship recipients in the 2009 calendar year:
• 18 were enrolled in the BSN program on the Little Rock campus
• Seven were enrolled in the BSN program on the Hope campus
• Two were pursuing a Master of Nursing Science (MSNc) degree
• Two were in the RN to BSN program.

In addition:
• Nine (31 percent) were minority students
• 24 (83 percent) were first generation college students
• 11(38 percent) said they were willing to teach upon graduation
• 15 (52 percent) lived in medically underserved areas
• Four (14 percent) lived in health professional shortage areas
• Nine (31 percent) had dependent children
• 23 (79 percent) were one-income households
• Five (17 percent) were male minority students

With a growing nursing shortage, Barone said, those students who plan to teach following graduation are critical for allowing nursing schools to produce more nurses in the future.

The foundation’s initial grant to the College of Nursing in 2006 marked the first time the organization had provided funding to a nursing school.

Keller said the organization’s founder and president, W. Frank Newton, along with board members Wayne A. Reaud, Gilbert I. “Buddy” Low and Jon M. Huntsman, felt strongly about programs like those at the college that improved lives by giving people the tools to become educated, healthy and self-reliant. He noted that it was Huntsman who first became acquainted with the college when he served on the American Red Cross board of directors with former UAMS faculty member Deborah Carman.

The Beaumont Foundation, established in 2001, is a nonprofit grant-making institution dedicated to enriching the lives and enhancing the futures of less fortunate children and youth, families and the elderly. The Foundation provides grants and scholarships to a broad range of charitable, religious and educational organizations across the United States.