California State University, Bakersfield and Kern Family Health Care (KFHC) are coming together to help meet the workforce needs in Kern County.
KFHC — which provides Medi-Cal coverage to Kern County residents — has established two new scholarship funds at CSUB, one for nursing majors and the other for students pursuing their Master in Social Work (MSW). The company hopes to help students obtain their degrees and get into the local health care industry.
“We’re very excited to be able to provide these scholarships,” said Kern Health Systems CEO and recent CSUB Alumni Hall of Fame inductee Emily Duran. “As a health plan, we understand the nursing shortage in our region is very significant. There is such a shortage of all health care professionals here, which has an impact on our providers and our members. We want to ensure there are no barriers for students to get their degrees.”
The Kern Family Health Care Nursing Annual Scholarship Fund will award scholarships to four nursing students each academic year.
“I am very excited to hear about this scholarship opportunity for our nursing students,” said Dr. Debra Wilson, professor and chair of the Nursing Department. “Our students perform better when they can focus on their studies instead of having to work. This additional support will help our students succeed.”
The MSW Annual Scholarship Fund will award two scholarships a year. Dr. Jong Choi, professor and chair of the Department of Social Work, said the new scholarship fund "will support students who will serve our community for the betterment of our quality of health.”
This support from KFHC will help fulfill CSUB’s goals of supporting future leaders as part of the university’s first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign, which was publicly announced in October 2021.
The goal of the campaign is to raise $55 million by July 2024 to transform the university.
This is the first time that KFHC has funded scholarships. Duran is happy that the company is able to support the community in this way.
“I’m excited because I’m a CSUB alum. When I was going to school at CSUB, I relied on scholarships myself,” she said.
Duran hopes these scholarships will lead to more CSUB students graduating in the nursing and social work fields, which will help ease the shortage of health care professionals in Kern County. That, in turn, will lead to better care for KFHC members.
“In order to support our provider community, we want to ensure we’re supporting the education system,” she said. “If we don’t grow out our own health care workforce, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble. We need to invest in our own workforce here [in Kern County].”
Click here to learn more about Kern Family Health Care.
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