KOKOMO, Ind. — The Dukes Health Care Foundation of Miami County has announced that Ivy Tech Community College has been awarded a $60,000 grant to fund a scholarship program to assist students from Miami County who are pursuing degrees in the health sciences.
The College recently received a check for $30,000 for the 2017 distribution from the grant. A second $30,000 will be provided in 2018. The money establishes the Health Sciences & Nursing Impact Scholarship in Miami County, which will fund six $10,000 impact scholarships. Qualified students who are selected for the scholarship will receive $2,500 a semester over a two-year period of time.
“The average cost of a two-year nursing degree approaches $14,000,” said Kelly Karickhoff, executive director of Resource Development for Ivy Tech’s Kokomo Region. “A $10,000 scholarship over a two-year period is transformational for a student.”
David Scheblo, director of Ivy Tech’s Peru Instructional Site, noted the goal of Dukes Health Care Foundation is to improve the health standards in Miami County and this program supports that effort. “This grant offers a partnership that will improve educational opportunities and services to Miami County residents,” Scheblo said, “both by providing desired and valuable training for its residents and by providing highly skilled employees to area healthcare businesses.”
The scholarship program is targeted at Miami County high school students and returning adult students interested in achieving a degree in the School of Health Sciences or the School of Nursing. Among its goals are to permit student to pursue an affordable college education close to home, thus eliminating barriers faced by many students.
Programs of study covered in this program include Dental Assisting, Healthcare Specialist, Paramedic, Nursing, Practical Nursing and Medical Assisting. Criteria for selection includes being a resident of Miami County; being a full-time student in Ivy Tech’s Kokomo Region, including sites in Kokomo, Logansport and Peru; and maintaining a minimum grade point average of 2.5.
For more information on the scholarship, contact Karickhoff at 765-252-5100 orkkarickhoff@ivytech.edu .
Since 2008, the Dukes Health Care Foundation has provided $865,547 in funding to support nursing education at Ivy Tech’s Peru Instructional Site. The grants have funded nursing faculty, nursing and science laboratories, audio visual supplies and equipment for nursing instruction, and two new patient-care simulators. With the encouragement of the Foundation, the Indiana State Board of Nursing approved expansion of the College’s Associate of Science in Nursing degree to the Peru campus in December 2012, in response to the needs of Dukes Memorial Hospital in Peru.