Rachel Sites of Eureka, Mo. is a freshman nursing student at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. She is one of several student who received scholarships for nursing education through a collaborative effort by Deaconess Foundation, The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis and the St. Louis American Foundation.
Sites said the honor is significant to her personally.
“I feel like being a recipient has made me want to work harder to lead as an example to anyone who wants to become a nurse,” Sites said.
She wants to complete her core work at the community college.
“I’m transferring next year to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville,” Sites added. “First, get the BSN after four years, but I’ll probably want to go back to school once I start working to be a nurse practitioner.”
Although her college training is in Arkansas, Sites has plans to return to the St. Louis area.
“I live in St Louis and I ‘ll just see what happens,” the Eureka High School graduate said. “I’ll probably come back to St. Louis unless I get a traveling nursing job in another city. I was thinking traveling nursing would be a pretty good gig.”
The three foundations have committed more than $100,000 annually in resources and support over a five-year-period to assist future nurses in their education and training. Deaconess Foundation Nursing Scholarships are awarded to 10-15 students annually (avg. award $6,000). Students must be permanent residents of the St. Louis metropolitan area and pursuing nursing (RN, BSN) at an accredited, nonprofit school. The awards are based on financial need, strength of character, and academic potential.
Applicants are required to have a valid email address when beginning the application as all correspondence will be arrive by email.
To apply, students are required to complete the two applications by April 15: the Deaconess Foundation Nursing Scholarship and The Scholarship Foundation Interest-Free Loan in Scholarship Central at www.sfstl.org.
If selected, Deaconess Scholarship recipients may also be given an opportunity to accept or decline an interest-free loan or other grants through SFSTL.
For more information, call The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis at 314-725-7990 or via email at info@sfstl.org.
For applications, select the link “Deaconess Foundation Nursing Scholarship” at https://stlouisgraduates.academicworks.com.
