2023 graduates receive health care scholarships

SALISBURY — A handful of students, proud parents, and the board members of Salisbury Visiting Nurses Association (SVNA) gathered in the lobby of the Visiting Nurses office in Salisbury on Tuesday, Aug. 1, to celebrate the SVNA’s nascent scholarship program and its ten college-aged recipients.

Now in its third year, the $10,000-per-year scholarship is awarded annually to five local high school seniors who plan to pursue careers in healthcare. (After winning the scholarship for their freshman year, the students are eligible to continue receiving the grant for each succeeding year of their degree.)

Scholarship applications, which are managed by Northwest CT Community Foundation, must demonstrate financial need, academic competency, and most importantly, a dedicated interest in the medical field.

The program came into being after SVNA merged with Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Litchfield County. The board determined that the SVNA’s endowment, which had grown out of SVNA’s local fundraising efforts, remain part of SVNA rather than getting absorbed into the larger organization. This way, said Louis Fox, a director on SVNA’s board, the board could ensure that the endowment went back to the community from which SVNA they had raised the money over the years. (While the scholarship is not strictly limited to Region 1, it is tightly tied to the Salisbury area. This is also true of another piece of the scholarship program, which grants funds to mid-career workers who want to pursue a new career or further education in health care.)

“The scholarship is a huge help,” said Christine Colley, the mother of awardee Emma Colley, a newly-minted graduate of Berkshire School bound for the University of Richmond, where she plans to major in biology, in the fall. As tuition balloons across schools in the U.S., such scholarships make a tangible difference for local parents.

“[Tuition] was significantly more than we’d expected it would be—plus we’re also putting our son through high school,” said Colley. “We wouldn’t be able to afford [the University of Richmond] without this scholarship.”

‘A Desperate Shortage’

SVNA also hopes that the scholarship might alleviate the critical dearth of healthcare workers across the U.S., particularly in more rural communities. The Northwest Corner, said Mary Robertson, president of the board of SVNA, “is in a desperate shortage of nurses and health care workers.”

“The home health care world is changing,” said Fox. “It’s more critical because the federal government is pushing people to not to stay in hospitals, to get out as quickly as they can—and most people want to go home.”

“Then they need not just nursing but rehabilitation and care-taking services as well,” explained Robertson, pointing to the large and growing demand for non-medical care as well—caretakers who can help someone get into the shower, or run an errand, or cook a meal.

“[Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Litchfield County is] trying to meet the needs of an aging local population,” she said, “but this is a remote location, it’s very difficult work, and most people who do this work can’t afford to live here.”

Future Health Care Workers

At the reception on Tuesday, Fox raised a toast to the five students in attendance. “We are so grateful to be able to support young people who want to go into healthcare and nursing, because we need you,” he said. “And though we have no say in what you decide to do with your education, it is our secret hope—or not-so-secret, really—that you’ll come back.”

“I love it here. This was an amazing place to grow up,” said Zoe Gilette, a scholarship recipient and Housatonic Valley Regional High School graduate set to begin her freshman year at Marist College, majoring in biomedical sciences. She hopes one day to become a physician’s assistant. But she expressed doubt as to whether or not she would return to the Northwest Corner to pursue her career. “My main concern is definitely being able to afford to live here long term. It’s become so expensive.”

Robertson concurred. More systemic change will be needed, particularly in the area of affordable housing, she said, before the Northwest Corner will see the influx of young health care workers and non-medical caretakers it needs.