WASHINGTON - At a time when most health care professions are experiencing significant worker shortages and need is growing, community colleges and businesses are teaming up to support future graduates in key health care professions.
This month, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, with the generous support of METI and L-3 Communications, Inc., will launch the Frank Lanza Memorial Scholarship Program. This timely initiative is designed to recognize the academic and leadership accomplishments of students enrolled in registered nursing, respiratory care or emergency medical service programs offered by regionally accredited community colleges. Up to twenty-five scholarships of $1,000 each will be awarded for the 2010 academic year.
The scholarships will target part-time, full-time and international students who have completed 50 percent of their course work leading toward achieving an associate degree and who have a demonstrable financial need (certificate students are not eligible to apply). Candidates do not have to be members of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society to apply.
The scholarship is named in honor of Frank Lanza, a founder of L-3 Communications -- a global aerospace and defense company -- that produces $15 billion in annual revenues and employs over 66,000 people worldwide. The scholarship endowment is funded equally by L-3 Communications and Medical Education Technologies, Inc. (METI), the world's leading producer of medical simulation products and educational software for health care education. In creating the endowment, Lou Oberndorf, METI Chairman and CEO and a long-time friend of Lanza, cited Lanza's visionary leadership and commitment to charitable causes as inspiration for the program.
Lanza served in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Korean War. He was a member of the board of directors for the Coast Guard Foundation and received the 2003 Distinguished Corporate Leadership award from the Soldiers', Sailors', Marines' and Airmen's Club. Lanza was also a member of the board of governors for the Aerospace Industries Association and the American-Italian Cancer Foundation. A philanthropist, Lanza and his wife supported a variety of charities through a family foundation.
For more information about the Frank Lanza Memorial Scholarship Program, call 601/984.3539. Visit the web sites for Phi Theta Kappa www.ptk.org and AACC www.aacc.nche.edu for complete requirements and downloadable applications.
Completed applications must be mailed in one packet and be received (not postmarked) on or before Oct. 15, 2009 at Phi Theta Kappa Headquarters, Attn: Frank Lanza Memorial Scholarship, 1625 Eastover Drive, Jackson, MS 39211.
Based in Washington, D.C., AACC is the primary advocacy organization for community colleges at the national level and works closely with directors of state offices to inform and to affect state policy. AACC represents almost 1,200 two-year, associate degree-granting institutions and more than 11 million students. Community colleges are the largest and fastest-growing sector of U.S. higher education, enrolling close to half (44 percent) of all U.S. undergraduates.
Headquartered in Jackson, Miss., Phi Theta Kappa is the largest honor society in higher education, with 1,250 chapters on college campuses in the 50 U.S. states, Canada, Germany, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the British Virgin Islands, the United Arab Emirates and U.S. territorial possessions. More than two million students have been inducted since its founding in 1918, with approximately 100,000 students inducted annually.
CONTACT: Norma Kent of American Association of Community Colleges,
+1-202-728-0200, ext. 209
Web Site: http://www.aacc.nche.edu/
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