The Kimball Hospital Foundation’s Healthcare Career Scholarship Program received the NCIP’s Class II Special Award in Workforce Development at a recent banquet in Kearney. The award recognizes efforts at successfully promoting and encouraging economic and community development. Sandy Lukassen, Kimball NCIP Committee chair and Kim Baliman, director of the Kimball-Banner County Chamber of Commerce, presented the award to the Hospital Foundation Board of Directors on Friday.
“(The NCIP) thought this was a very good program to recruit kids to come back home,” Lukassen said. “It’s one step forward in keeping our young people here in Kimball, and we need more of those.”
The Healthcare Career Scholarship is designed for students pursuing careers in the healthcare industry who reside within a 40-mile radius of Kimball. To qualify, the student must enroll full-time in undergraduate studies at an accredited college or university. Examples include, but are not limited to nursing, radiological technology, medical technology, physical therapy, and health information management. Scholarships may be up to $2,000 for the first year, with stair-stepped amounts available each year for up to four years. Successful applicants must agree to work one year as a full-time employee of Kimball Health Services or another hospital in the Rural Nebraska Health Network (Alliance, Bridgeport, Chadron, Gordon, Oshkosh, Scottsbluff, Sidney) for each year of scholarship support.
“The Foundation Board members believe our town’s strength is dependent on the quality healthcare that Kimball Health Services provides,” said Kerry Ferguson, director of the Foundation, “Quality healthcare is the cornerstone of a viable community.”
Funding for the scholarship program was made possible through fundraising efforts by the Foundation, including golf tournaments, bowling tournaments, memorial gifts and proceeds from various Foundation investments.
