Nick Tabio

In honor of the school’s 100th anniversary, an anonymous donor gifted the Yale School of Nursing $11.1 million. 

The money, which was announced during the school’s centennial celebration kick-off event on Sept. 21, will help offer students full-tuition scholarships as part of the YSN Community Scholars program. The program currently provides scholarships covering full tuition, fees, health insurance and an additional stipend of $20,000 for the six selected students each year.

Gail McCulloch, the nursing school’s associate dean for development and alumni affairs, said that the new donation will be instrumental in providing many deserving students with the opportunity to attend nursing school without going into significant debt. 

“Yale nurses and midwives often graduate with six figures of debt, a prohibitive burden to many talented people who would be incredible assets to the nation’s most trusted profession,” McCulloch wrote in an email to the News. “This gift makes it possible to welcome a cohort of future nurse leaders regardless of their ability to pay … They will be able to bring their advanced practice skills to healthcare deserts in rural areas, underserved communities and structurally marginalized populations.”

At the nursing school, the two nursing tracks for master’s students include the Master of Science in Nursing, which is for students with a bachelor of science in nursing, and the Graduate Entry Pre-Specialty in Nursing program, which is meant for those with no nursing experience. Students in either program are eligible to submit an application to the Community Scholars program. 

Students who apply are selected based on academic achievement, financial need and their demonstrated commitment to working with underserved communities and reducing health disparities.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, there will be a shortage of registered nurses in the U.S. by 2030. The AACN fact sheet on their website claims that the shortage may be due to the increased need for healthcare as the Baby Boomer generation ages, as well as the increased number of nurses leaving the workforce in the past two years, likely due to stress caused by the pandemic. 

According to Azita Emami, dean of the nursing school, the school’s Community Scholars Program aims to help address this shortage by making education more accessible for students from historically underserved communities. 

“YSN’s mission is better health for all people, and the Community Scholars Program is a signature effort toward making health equity a reality for all the populations we serve,” Emani wrote in a press release. “Our students, our faculty, and our school refuse to accept that the status quo of longstanding and shameful health disparities is inevitable and unchangeable.”

Emani said she expects Community Scholar students to act as “multipliers” once they graduate, helping to advance health equity and healthcare accessibility in their practice.

Carolyn Stewart NUR ’25 is a second-year student in the MSN program specializing in psychiatric and mental health. She praised the historic donation as well as the Community Scholars program for helping current and future nursing students. 

“It’s a beautiful thing to create opportunities for people to enter the nursing and advanced practice registered nurses [APRN] space, especially given the provider shortage our country is facing,” Stewart wrote in an email to the News. “It is encouraging and inspiring to think about how this gift will impact future YSN students. I am confident that the students receiving these scholarships will embody YSN’s mission of better health for all people, and I am sure they will go on to do great work in their respective specialties.”

In addition, according to the press release, the University will match the donation as part of its For Humanity fundraising campaign, making the total donation $22.2 million. The campaign, which was launched in fall 2021, aims to raise $1.2 billion for scholarships and fellowships across different University programs. 

Ekaterina Ginzburg, assistant dean of teaching and learning at the nursing school, spoke in an interview with the News about the overall importance of such a donation to the nursing profession.

“This is a very exciting event for the school,” Ginzburg said. “The nursing profession helps everybody in the most difficult times of their lives. This gift is a tremendous recognition of the importance of the nursing profession and nursing education.”

The Yale School of Nursing was founded in 1923. 

Correction, Nov. 29: The article was updated to include the correct term for an abbreviation.