Scholarships for Education
Nurses Educational Funds, Inc. (NEF) is a not-for-profit organization which seeks and distributes funds to baccalaureate- prepared registered nurses who are in need of scholarship assistance for graduate study. NEF is administered by a Board of Directors comprised of prominent leaders in nursing, other professions, and in business. Nurses comprise the majority of board members.
NEF is preparing for an exciting 100th anniversary year. It was in 1912 that the first two Isabel Hampton Robb scholarships were awarded to two nurses,Cecelia Evans and Lisle French. From then til 2011, NEF has continued to support our nursing professional going on for graduate degrees. Hopefully, with the support of all our friends, we can continue with this work.
SCHOLAR UPDATE
Whittaker scholarship winner, Esther Bernhofer, has combined a diverse nursing career with the raising of 8 children. Graduating with her BSN from the University of Akron in 1981 and went on to work at various institutions in the Cleveland area. After joining the Cleveland Clinic as staff nurse on a respiratory unit, she renewed her interest in nursing research and education and returned to school in the BSN to PhD program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She has one more full time year to complete her dissertation “light, Sleep, Mood and Pain in the Medical Inpatient”. Her passion for pain management led her to take on a full time position as the Pain Management/Education Coordinator for the Medicine and Digestive Disease Institutes.
BOARD MEMBERS UPDATE
KATHLEEN DIRSCHEL, RN, PhD, one of NEF’s past Presidents and long time Board Member has just moved into a new top position at St. John’s = Vice President for Community Relations in the hospital.
Kathleen, who had been Dean of the Cochran School of Nursing assumed her new post at the in mid-
October. Many congratulations and best wishes to Kathleen.
And, in addition, last year Kathleen received recognition via a reception in her honor, as the Founding Dean of the Graduate School of Nursing at U Mass Medical Center in Worcester, Mass. With the beginning of the GSN (thanks to Kathleen) in 1986, the academic of the campus were considered complete. The GSN is still going strong today and has grown. It’s now involved in doctoral education. (It was started with just the Masters level.)
Madeleine Sugimoto, RN, M.Ed, Board Member and Chairman of the Criteria and Eligibility Committee was picked to do a cable TV interview discussing her experiences in the Japanese interment camps during World War 2. Below is the link so that you can see and hear Madeleine's informative and interesting interview.
http://vimeo.com/27647144