Schoolcraft College and Michigan’s largest health care system have a new agreement that will aid in the development of nurses ready to join the front lines of the health care industry.
The College and Corewell Health have teamed up to create the Corewell Health RN Scholarship Program, which will provide scholarships to 20 Schoolcraft College nursing students as well as offer guaranteed job placement at a local Corewell Health facility in southeast Michigan. Students in the program, which begins this fall, will receive up to $8,500 from the Schoolcraft College Foundation to use on tuition, books and other educational expenses during the second year of their RN nursing program.
Those who receive the scholarship will then agree to work at a Corewell Health hospital in southeast Michigan for at least two years after graduation. Graduates will also need to pass the NCLEX examination for licensure.
“It’s a great opportunity to not only have assistance with their tuition while at Schoolcraft, but to place them after graduation at a local hospital across metro Detroit, bringing their talents to the health care industry where they’re badly needed,” said Dr. Glenn Cerny, president of Schoolcraft College. “We’re grateful for the opportunity that Corewell is bringing to the Schoolcraft family.”
Corewell Health — which has hospitals in Farmington Hills, Wayne, Royal Oak, Troy, Dearborn, Trenton, Taylor and Grosse Pointe — is excited to bring these students into its facilities, said Nancy Susick, RN, Chief Operating Officer, Acute & Post-Acute Care, Corewell Health East. She said the hope is that graduates will work longer than the required two years as a part of the scholarship agreement.
“We’re hoping it will be much longer than that, because we have lots of great career paths for our nurses,” she said. “Registered nurses, as everyone knows, are just vital to our health care and more in demand than ever before. Corewell Health is very honored to be able to be a part of educating and certainly employing the next generation of health care providers.”
The agreement — which will award 20 scholarships to students in the second year of their nursing program — was signed during an event July 13 in the Health Sciences Center at Schoolcraft College.
Both Cerny and Susick said they look forward to the two institutions working together in the future, with Susick saying they have plenty more ideas for partnerships.
“You’ve been wonderful to work with and to create this partnership,” Susick said to Cerny at the ceremony. “And just so you know, there’s going to be many, many more partnerships and many other things we’d like to do with Schoolcraft College.”