$1 mil. pledged for 32 Nursing students' work

An $18 million fund raised by the sale of a Picasso painting has been dedicated to paying 32 Nursing students' tuition in order to draw them to New York City hospitals. The Alex Hillman Family Foundation sold Picasso's Mother and Child last year to subsidize the students' $13,420 tuition. Eight juniors and eight seniors were selected in October for the $1 million program, and freshmen and sophomores will be selected in the spring of their sophomore years. The scholarships will fund their junior and senior years. Students will be required to work one year in any New York City hospital for each year they receive scholarship money. The foundation will review the program after three years and decide whether it will extend the program. Associate Nursing Professor Ellen Baer said yesterday that the program sprung from Foundation President Rita Hillman's concern that there will not be enough nurses to staff New York City hospitals as they struggle with AIDS and drugs. "The whole purpose of the foundation [in establishing the program] is to entice the students to come to New York," Baer said. The foundation specializes in making art available for museums and schools. Baer said last night that scholarship winners will conduct part of their required field work at the New York Hospital, spending Thursday and Friday of each week at the facility. Students will work under nurses in their field of interest during the second semester of their senior year, and will be supervised by Baer. The experience will let students experience working and living in New York City, Baer said. New York Hospital is located on New York's fashionable Upper East Side, and is the site of the Cornell University Medical School. Baer was introduced to Hillman by a mutual friend who knew both of Hillman's concern and that Baer was a nursing professor at the University. Baer and Hillman met last December, and Hillman met last spring with Nursing Dean Clare Fagin, Undergraduate Nursing Director Mary Naylor and President Sheldon Hackney to hammer out details. Naylor said yesterday that the program strengthens financial aid programs available to Nursing students, allowing students who otherwise would have to work to focus on their studies. During their junior year, scholarship recipients will receive $12,500, which will increase to $13,250 the next year. The program may also serve as a model for financing nursing education at other universities, Naylor said. Nursing senior Carin Julian, a scholarship recipient, said yesterday that she expects the program to be a "good experience," giving her an opportunity to work in New York under a structured environment. She said the program's seniors will be like "guinea pigs" as they are the first to go through the program. Baer said that students are selected for the program based mostly on academic standing, but she said extra-curricular activites and diversity of interests were also considered. "We wanted students who had a certain vitality," Baer said.

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