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Fuld Trust Scholarships Awarded
A Hunger for More: Fuld Trust Scholarships Make Second Careers in Nursing Possible
By Nanette Cormier
While Jean McGinty captured awards as a pastry chef and Jon Debach developed software, Salley Burkart balanced corporate books. Around the same time, all three of them hungered for something more. The College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston embraced these three career-changers, and the Helene Fuld Scholarship Program is now making their professional goal of a nursing career possible.
Jean, Jon, and Salley were three of ten 2007 Helen Fuld Health Trust Scholarship recipients, students pursuing a BS in nursing, honored Wednesday at a CNHS luncheon. Selected from a pool of 121 applicants, the recipients are chosen for academic excellence and contributions to community service. They are the “cream of the crop” says CNHS Dean Greer Glazer.
Provost Fonteyn lauded the recipients and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences for landing this prestigious funding. “The Fuld Health Scholarship Program substantiates the quality of our nursing program, of our students,” said Fonteyn. “We know that the success of patients is directly proportional to the quality of care given by nurses,” he added, noting admiringly that his wife is a Ph.D. nurse at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The Fuld Scholarships are available to those seeking second degrees, unlike most financial aid, says John Mascetta, student affairs specialist. The common theme among this year’s awardees is their desire to work with the underprivileged on local or international levels. “Our scholars have rich experience and community service which they bring to their studies. They set the bar high and deepen learning for everybody,” Mascetta adds.
“A calling comes to you at different times,” says recipient Salley Burkart. Hers came during an internship at the Brockton YMCA working with overweight teens as part of a CNHS-sponsored health science study. Salley says she learned how to “really listen to people from many different backgrounds,” and that skill helped them to change habits and prompted her interest in nursing. A breast cancer diagnosis and successful recovery only furthered Salley’s commitment to emulate the clinicians who “went beyond themselves in providing care for me.”
“UMass Boston understands non-traditional students and sees their promise,” says Jon Debach. “There is a tremendous attitude of empathy here,” adds this former anthropology major and future RN who hopes to become a nurse practitioner or to teach nursing.
Fuld Scholar Sara Stankiewicz was joined by her parents, including mother Linda Stankiewicz (MA ’99), also a nurse. Sara and her mother remember the lunch when Sara, a 2004 graduate of Providence College in political science, admitted she wasn’t sure why she selected that major. As Sara refined her career interest, her mother’s stories of profound patient appreciation were a motivating factor. Now, soon to graduate, Sara is already making a difference in global health. She has just returned from a month providing healthcare in Kenya as part of a non-profit she and other UMass Boston students have started. “Sara is precisely the type of student the Fuld Program wants to support,” says Prof. Deborah Mahony, director of student and academic affairs.