Courtesy photos.
CAMARILLO — CSU Channel Islands’ award-winning Nursing program is getting a shot in the arm from a $200,000 grant from the Dr. Richard Grossman Community Foundation to support student scholarships.
Dr. Grossman, who passed away in 2014, was a burn reconstruction pioneer who opened the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles in 1969, serving thousands of burn survivors in need of reconstructive surgery. He and his wife, Elizabeth Rice Grossman, lived in Ventura County. The Foundation recently voted to support the next generation of nurses attending nearby CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI).
“My husband worshipped his nurses,” Grossman said. “Some of his nurses had been with him 30, 40 years. He often said that if it hadn’t been for his nurses, he never would have achieved so many successful patient outcomes.”
“The Dr. Richard Grossman Community recognized that there was a shortage of health care professionals everywhere, and the Foundation wanted to help alleviate that shortage by supporting our local Nursing program.”
The Dr. Richard Grossman Community Foundation gave CSUCI’s Nursing Program $100,000 to support student scholarships in 2017.
“The Foundation Board thought that if we made an additional grant to bring the fund up to $300,000, it would attract more students who were interested in healthcare and who had a financial need in order to be able to attend Nursing School,” Grossman said. “This school is getting a very good reputation, and it’s right here in our back yard.”
In 2018, the CSUCI Nursing program was named the 12th best in the state out of 131 programs by RegisteredNursing.Org. In 2017, the program also reported a 100% pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) —for the fourth time. Those are the state boards that allow graduates to practice nursing.
Chair of the Nursing & Health Science programs Lynette Landry, Ph.D., R.N. expressed her gratitude for the generous donation and added that the gift will go a long way toward helping both the Nursing undergraduates and the program.
“Many of our students are first-generation college students who don’t have a lot of financial resources available to them to support them while they are in the nursing program,” Landry said. “Many of them work while attending school. Scholarships allow our students to reduce their hours of employment so they are better able to concentrate on their studies.”
Landry added that student nurses are also then freed up for community service, such as working at the Frances Huggins Community Health Clinic in Oxnard and conducting community health fairs, both valuable experiences for student nurses.
President Erika D. Beck thanked the Dr. Richard Grossman Community Foundation for the gift, pointing out that this sort of generosity is what enables CSUCI to continue to provide highly-trained nurses to meet the health care needs of the community and beyond.
“We are our most successful as a University and as a regional economic force when we work together,” Beck said. “The Dr. Richard Grossman Community Foundation’s investment in our Nursing program is an excellent example of this, and we plan to do our part by graduating high quality nurses into our community.”
About California State University Channel Islands: CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CSUCI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CSUCI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CSUCI’s Social Media.