A newly endowed scholarship will provide support to Doctor of Nursing Practice students to support health care in Alabama.
The Riley, Hamilton and Alabama Nurses Foundation Endowed Scholarship combines the previously non-endowed Dr. Brenda Riley Endowed Scholarship and combines it with gifts from the Alabama Nurses Foundation and Dr. Bernita Hamilton, a past professor of nursing and former director of the School of Nursing who now serves as an adjunct faculty member in the School’s Master of Science in Nursing Program.
The combined scholarship is now endowed with $50,000 and will focus first on supporting DNP students.
“This gift will be a long-lasting legacy of great nursing leaders from Troy University,” said Dr. Wade Forehand, Director of the School of Nursing.
“This is both a generous and wonderful gift from all parties. There is nothing better than the ability to support doctoral nursing students in their academic pursuits,” he said.
The $25,000 in funds given by ANF come from the sale of “Nurses Save Lives” specialty license plates. TROY becomes the sixth university school of nursing in the state to receive funding from the Foundation.
“This is not the end,” said Dr. John Ziegler, ANF executive director. “We partner with our institutions for future projects. We don’t look at this as a one-time event but, rather, an enduring partnership.”
Individual scholarships to nursing students ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 per year are also provided by the Foundation.
Dr. Brenda Riley, also a former professor and Assistant Dean of the College of Health and Human Services for Nursing at TROY, said she had long supported the Nurses Foundation scholarship process, serving on the scholarship awards committee.
“These scholarships always support doctoral students, in addition to endowed scholarships we have at the various schools,” she said.
Currently, the Nurses Foundation has more than 12,000 car tags statewide.
Dr. Hamilton said the endowed scholarships are meant to impact the state of healthcare in Alabama.
“This is important to me because I believe that Alabama needs ‘doctorally prepared’ nurses to not only to provide patient care at the highest level but also to teach future students,” she said. “I think the scholarship will provide them the opportunity to continue their education and to really make a difference in the healthcare in Alabama.”
The gifts were acknowledged by Foundation gift officer J.R. Eason.
“This will always be something that is awarded to nursing students, and we are very thankful to all of you for supporting these students,” he said. “Thank you for all you do for the nursing world, Troy University and for the students in the School of Nursing.
