ONTARIO – As construction of Treasure Valley Community College’s nursing and health professions center begins, officials got word last week that a local church donated nearly $250,00 for nursing student scholarships.
The Ontario Bethany Presbyterian Church has donated $244,500 to the college’s foundation to award needs-based scholarships to nursing students.
The church, established in Ontario over a century ago, shuttered its nursing home in Ontario, in 2017, according to Ray Burzota, a spokesperson with the church.
Burzota said the nursing home, built in 1952 by the church and others in the community, had always been a place that did not turn anyone away due to an inability to pay. However, he said, the church found it no longer financially viable to keep the care center open.
Burzota said church members formed a committee to decide what to do with the money from selling the nursing home property.
“We wanted to fill a need in the community,” Burzota said.
Burzota said prior to the care center closing, Cathleen Sullivan, the former director of the care center, had suggested establishing scholarships for health care workers.
That became a reality with the sale in 2017.
Burzota said many of the care center’s certified nursing assistants had gone through Treasure Valley Community College’s nursing program. With a nursing shortage across Oregon and the country, Burzota said the scholarship donation will “fill a need in the community.”
Cathy Yasuda, the Treasure Valley Community College Foundation’s director, said in a Monday, June 17, press release that the church’s donation is “perfect timing” given that construction of the training facility is set to begin. Yasuda said once the nursing facility is built, the college will double the number of students in the nursing program.
Burzota said the college will administer the scholarships.
He said the administrators “know better” than the roughly 25-member congregation about how to award the scholarships. Burzota said the scholarships will primarily go to students interested in becoming certified nursing assistants. The rest, he said, will go to the nursing program.
Yasuda said they plan to make the scholarship awards available for the next academic year. She said the average award would depend on the stock market at the time. The nursing assistant course costs anywhere between $1,900 to $2,690 for the complete program.
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