Scholarships For Women In Healthcare

First, the good news: scholarships for students planning careers in healthcare professions are abundant.

Next, the not-so-good news: scholarships that are for women only are less abundant. Such scholarships are out there, but are harder to find than scholarships open to both sexes.

Even women’s professional organizations accept scholarships from male students. For example, the Daughters of the American Revolution, offers several healthcare scholarships, including for nursing and physical therapy, but they are also open to male applicants. In many health professions, such are nursing, women students outnumber men, so women should have no qualms about applying for scholarships open to both.

A search engine is a student’s best friend when it comes to finding scholarships in the healthcare field. Scholarships are offered by professional organizations; by specialty, such as oncology or obstetrics; nursing level, which ranges from certified nursing assistant (CNA) to registered nurse (RN); hospitals and colleges. One search using just the word “scholarship” with “oncology” or “nursing” should turn up dozens of scholarships for both men and women.

Women should also check with state and local professional associations, since competition for local scholarships is generally not as fierce as at the national level. as well as the school they plan to attend.

Women looking for scholarships for women only may have more success by searching for scholarships for minority women, single mothers or women over 40 that can be used for any career field. Here is a sample of some scholarships available for women only:

• American Medical Women’s Association has promoted women’s health care for more than 90 years. To this end, the association offers two $1,000 scholarships to women who are enrolled in their first year of medical school. Applicants must be student members of the association (member scholarships are available); financial need is considered, but is not the deciding factor.
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America may seem an unlikely source of scholarships, but it sponsors several scholarships (Belmer/Flora Prince and Kahler, Vickers/Raup, Wettstein scholarships) who want to work in healthcare professions on church projects abroad. Applicants must be church members who did not attend college for at least two years after graduating from high school.
• The University of Wisconsin-Madison offers the Caroline, Clara, Charles and Mildred Harper Scholarship for first-year women students majoring in physical therapy. The $1,200 scholarships are based on academic achievement and financial need.