The HBU School of Nursing and Allied Health is delighted to accept a gift from the John S. Dunn Foundation in the amount of $200,000, which will fund scholarships for undergraduate and graduate nursing students. The award brings total support from the John S. Dunn Foundation to $2.3 million. The new funds will be utilized to support 10 undergraduate and 11 graduate scholarships. The new scholarships, combined with Dunn Endowed Scholarships, will provide 29 nursing students with scholarships in the fall of 2018.
Dr. Renae Schumann, dean of the School of Nursing and Allied Health, said, “We are so excited about this generous award from the Dunn Foundation which provides additional scholarships to students in our growing BSN program. We are grateful for the support of our rapidly rising MSN program as well.”
Charles M. Lusk III, president of the Dunn Foundation Board of Trustees, said, “We consider nursing to be the future of medicine, and the HBU Nursing Program to be the best in the city. As the Dunn Foundation Trustees, we are blessed to be able to extend the philanthropy of John S. Dunn, particularly to fine programs such as yours.”
The HBU School of Nursing and Allied Health prepares nurses to be leaders and members of interdisciplinary teams that provide care in a variety of settings and roles. HBU is a member institution of the Texas Medical Center; nursing students benefit from partnerships with the medical community and leaders within the Houston area. In the fall of 2017, enrollment for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program was 508, and a dozen students entered the newly launched Master of Science in Nursing programs for Family Nurse Practicioner and Pediatric Nurse Practicioner in Primary Care. Since the School of Nursing and Allied Health’s inception 50 years ago, 378 associate’s degrees, 1,144 bachelor’s degrees, and 40 master’s degrees have been conferred. HBU Nursing graduates score consistently above the national average pass rate for the NCLEX-RN. (In December 2017, 97.29 percent of HBU graduates passed the test.) About 80 percent of HBU nursing students are offered a job before graduation, and about 95 percent have secured a job within six weeks after graduating.