Minority nursing scholarships provide wonderful financial opportunities for members ofminority groups interested in working in healthcare, but worried about the costs ofeducation. Offered by numerous private and professional organizations, by minorityassociations as well as by the Department of Health, these scholarships vary in terms ofthe size of the funding made available as well as in terms of eligibility conditions, sohere are a few ideas about how to find the right programs and how to apply for them.
Nursing scholarships are available for minority students of all categories and at alllevels. There are programs that propose to offer financial relieve for prospective nursesbelonging to an ethnic minority such as Alaskan nurses, Indian American nurses orAfrican American nurses, other programs are geared towards single mothers or otherminorities. Scholarships are available for undergraduate and graduate studies, andthere are many funding programs that provide financial aid for students interested in acertain field of nursing such as anesthesiology, oncology or the treatment of respiratorydiseases in children. There are scholarships that encourage people to study nursingand then work in areas affected by the shortage of nurses, so regional incentiveprograms are also out there.
The best way to find scholarship programs is by checking the website of the Departmentof Health and the sites of professional associations and organizations. You can alsocheck the scholarships provided by the nursing school you are attending or are planningto enroll into – even if your college does not have a suitable program, you can ask theschool’s scholarship office for guidance.
Each program has its own requirements – some are offered only to freshman students,others are for students in higher years. Some scholarships require the applicant to be amember of a specific professional association, while others are offered to nursingstudents who realize incomes under a certain level. The programs are just as varied interms of application deadlines – if you carry out a little research, you will find that thereis at least one scholarship that you can apply to each month during the year. Bear inmind that putting together a perfect application is a time-intensive activity, so the bestway to maximize your chances of success is to start looking for the right minoritynursing scholarships right away, to put together your own list of programs you may beeligible for and then to start submitting your application to each one of them.