For the second consecutive year, Blinn College’s nursing program gets a $400,000 dollar scholarship gift.
After Blinn’s board of trustees accepted the donation during Tuesday’s meeting, there was a question about the requirement of spending it all during this calendar year. Executive vice chancellor Leighton Schubert said that was a requirement when the college received an identical gift, and the money was spent.
Blinn has an associate degree nursing program on the RELLIS campus and a vocational nursing program in Brenham.
The gift comes from the Wheeler Foundation, which has contributed $1 million dollars during the last four years.
Click below for comments from the January 18, 2022 Blinn College trustees meeting. Speakers include chief financial officer Richard Cervantes and executive vice chancellor Leighton Schubert.
News release from Blinn College:
During its regular meeting Tuesday, the Blinn College District Board of Trustees accepted a $400,000 gift from the F.W. Bert and Mae Dean Wheeler Foundation that will fund scholarships in support of Blinn nursing students during the 2022 calendar year.
The scholarships support students enrolled in Blinn’s associate degree, vocational nursing, and licensed vocational nursing-transition programs. Over the last four years, Blinn has received a total of $1 million from the Wheeler Foundation in support of Blinn’s nursing students.
Blinn’s two-year Associate Degree Nursing Program prepares students for a nursing career and for transfer into a bachelor’s degree program at a four-year university. Students who complete Blinn’s ADN Program and pass the NCLEX-RN have a job placement rate between 97 and 100% and are qualified for a wide array of nursing positions, including pediatric, geriatric, hospice, school, and clinical nursing. With the demand soaring in the nursing field, new graduates can expect to make an average of $53,000 per year.
Blinn’s ADN Program is based at the RELLIS Academic Alliance Complex at the RELLIS Campus in Bryan, where students gain hands-on skills utilizing the facility’s 16,000-square-foot simulation laboratories.
Located on the Brenham Campus, Blinn’s Vocational Nursing Program offers students the choice of a 10-month, face-to-face track where students attend class and clinicals each day during the week, and a 12-month, online-blended track where theory courses are taught online and labs and clinicals are taught in person on Fridays and weekends. The online-blended track is designed for working professionals.
According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, almost 98% of Blinn’s graduates from the program during the past three years have found jobs in the profession. Program graduates are eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-PN) and the Nursing Jurisprudence Examination and are considered licensed vocational nurses after passing both exams. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2020 annual median pay for vocational nurses was $48,820, and employment is expected to increase 9% between 2020 and 2030, creating 63,800 new jobs nationwide.
The one-year Licensed Vocational Nursing-Transition Program prepares individuals who hold a license to practice as an LVN in Texas and have at least approximately one year of nursing experience to take the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) in one year.
For more information regarding Blinn’s nursing programs, visit www.blinn.edu/nursing.