Crossing Borders: Making Connection Grant Description

Introduction

The Crossing Borders: Making Connections program is to increase nursing education opportunities for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, including racial and ethnic minorities, combining the concepts of border crossing and social determinants of health for a guiding framework. The project increases academic competence of middle and high school students at the pre-entry level and implement for students in the nursing program a comprehensive yet individualized retention program, while providing a combination of summer stipends and academic year scholarships to support their educational endeavors and minimize competing needs.

Objectives

The Crossing Borders: Making Connections is a project specifically designed to increase nursing education opportunities for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, including racial and ethnic minorities. The project provides an academic enhancement program including racial and ethnic minorities. The project provides an academic enhancement program including consistent yet individualized retention activities and a combination of stipends and scholarships for the participants to support their educational endeavor and minimize competing needs during the educational period. The project also provides a pre-entry (recruitment) component focusing on middle school and high school students. The concept of social determinants of health is integrated in each of the components of the project. The project has the following objectives:

  1. Admit 10 students from disadvantaged backgrounds (including racial/ethnic minorities), who meet program eligibility requirements but were unable to be admitted due to limited seats, for entry into the baccalaureate nursing program each funding year (BHPr Guiding Principles, Healthy People 2020 Overarching Goal 2, Recruitment, Social Determinants of Health (SDH).
  2. Retain 8 or more students from disadvantaged backgrounds (including racial/ethnic minorities) from each project cohort in the baccalaureate nursing program (BHPr Guiding Principles, Health People 2020 Overarching Goal 2, Retention/Graduation, SDH).
  3. Award scholarships to students demonstrating financial need who participate full time (all course work and attendance 90% of the support activities) in E3:Enhance, Empower, Engage program during the fall and spring semesters (Stipend/Scholarship, Retention, SDH).
  4. Award stipends to students who participate full time (all course work and attendance at 90% of the support activities in the E3:Enhance, Empower, Engage summer externship (Stipend/Scholarship, Retention, SDH).
  5. Students and faculty will identify each year a minimum of two bridges to use to cross real and potential borders that students face in higher education (SDH, Healthy People 2020 Overarching Goal 2, BHPr Guiding Principles).
  6. Students will make 3 connections per semester with middle school and high school students in the Charlotte AHEC Heroes program to help pre-entry students be better prepared and competitive when they choose to apply for admission to a nursing program, and to empower the students to believe in self as a change agent to influence social norms and attitudes (values) related to health determinants and health disparities (SDH, Diversity and Cultural Competence, Healthy People 2020 Overarching Goal 2).

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