UM School of Nursing and Health Studies Names Inaugural Helene Fuld ABSN Scholars

Eight stellar students in the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program have been chosen as the first-ever Helene Fuld ABSN Scholars at the School of Nursing and Health Studies.
UM School of Nursing and Health Studies Names Inaugural Helene Fuld ABSN Scholars

The students will receive $10,000 each toward their tuition in the rigorous degree program, thanks to a generous award from the Helene Fuld Health Trust, one of the nation’s largest private funders devoted to nursing students and nursing education.

“I’d like to welcome you as the inaugural group of Fuld ABSN Scholars,” said Cindy L. Munro, Ph.D., dean and professor of the SONHS, during a June 15 luncheon to introduce the students to their faculty mentors. “The Helene Fuld Health Trust has been very active in the support of nursing as a discipline for a very long time and is a major donor for our School. This will be a lovely achievement for you to add to your CV.”

Announced in 2016, the Helene Fuld Health Trust’s $1.7 million grant to the SONHS went toward building the Helene Fuld Skills Resource Center on the fifth floor of the new Simulation Hospital and to create scholarships for eight incoming ABSN students per year for a period of three years. The 11-month ABSN program is designed for students who already have a bachelor’s degree in a field other than nursing. Financial aid can be critical because they’ve often exhausted prior scholarship support while earning their first degrees. 

The 2018 Helene Fuld ABSN Scholars at the SONHS represent a broad range of academic experience, from liberal arts and computer science to biology and business. Their geographic backgrounds are equally diverse, including the Pacific Northwest, Minnesota, Jordan, Brazil, Cuba and Russia.

During the luncheon, Irina Kalvarskaya, who moved to South Florida from Moscow four and a half years ago, explained that the scholarship will help her fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a nurse. “Thank you very much for this opportunity,” she said. “Thank you for believing in me.”

She and her peers were selected based on the quality of their personal statements, CVs, and grade point averages at the time of application. “It was very hard to choose this group, and I think we’ve made a great selection,” said faculty mentor Erick Zarabozo, D.N.P. ’17.

Zarabozo’s mentee is Gino Cortes, a 24-year-old former software developer from New Jersey who was valedictorian of his high school class. The Rutgers graduate now hopes to connect his technology background with the advances taking place in healthcare. Cortes said seeing his mother serve in the nursing profession all his life has fostered his passion for helping people—and his persistence to succeed.

Sharing the resources that will help Cortes and the other scholars do just that was a main goal of the afternoon event coordinated by program leaders Mary Mckay, B.S.N. ’88, D.N.P. ’09, associate dean of the BSN programs and associate professor of clinical, and Deborah Salani, B.S.N. ’86, M.S.N. ’89, D.N.P. ’12, associate professor of clinical. “We’re here to give you a lot of support and encouragement,” assured Salani. “We were all young nursing students once upon a time too, so we know how difficult that was.”

The Fuld Scholars must maintain a 3.0 GPA and meet regularly with their mentors. “I’m really excited to be here and go through this program,” said Meredith McCoid, who studied psychology and then worked on a sailboat in the Caribbean before joining the SONHS last month. “I know it’s going to be overwhelming, but it’s good knowing there’s someone behind you.”

Cortes agreed. “The Fuld scholarship not only reduces my financial debt,” he said. “It provides me with an open network of both faculty and fellow students on whom I know I can rely.”

The 2018 Helene Fuld ABSN Scholars are: Gino Cortes, Yaima Gutierrez, Irina Kalvarskaya, Meredith McCoid, Gabriela Piacentini, Haley Rudnik, Abigail Wilton, and Rhonda Yousef.