Palm Beach Community College was recently awarded $8,608 for scholarships as part of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida’s (BCBSF) $2.5 million initiative to tackle the severe nursing shortage.

The money is the first distribution from an endowment seeded by BCBSF and matched by the state legislature that will be administered by the Foundation for Florida’s Community Colleges in Tallahassee. Nearly $250,000 was awarded to community colleges throughout the state.

By establishing a sustained source of funding for these scholarships, the state can better meet the growing demand for nurses and other skilled health care professionals. Workforce studies predict nearly 45,000 additional nurses will be needed by 2012. The BCBSF scholarship is estimated to fund approximately 200 students statewide annually.

The PBCC Foundation is seeking a local match for the $8,608, which can then be matched by the state to increase the total value of the donation to over $25,000. Scholarships will be offered to new students as well as existing students who have nearly exhausted their current scholarships and would be unable to complete their education without this financial boost.

“What a wonderful benefit this will be to the underserved population of our community,” said Joanne Masella, manager of PBCC’s nursing program. “These scholarships are going to help people who do not have the money to attend school otherwise.”

PBCC has 425 students enrolled in the registered nurse program and a total of 1,200 students in the various health care programs.

This entry was posted by Taman Siswa on Monday, April 24, 2006 at 5:11 am and is filed under Education News, Scholarship. Tags: College, Education News, Florida, Foundation for Florida, Joanne Masella, Palm Beach Community College, PBCC Foundation, Scholarship, state legislature, Student, . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.