Gifts from one of the Spring 2011 honorary degree recipients will create new scholarship programs for students seeking a degree in nursing or an allied health field at Newman University. The gift will create one scholarship, called the Marjorie Chance Scholarship in Nursing, that will be awarded to selected students beginning in the fall 2011 semester. Another scholarship, the Marjorie Chance Endowed Nursing and/or Allied Health Scholarship, will begin awarding scholarships as early as the fall 2012 semester.
The programs are made possible by gifts from Marjorie (Marj) Chance, a longtime Wichita resident, businesswoman and philanthropist who played a key role in the establishment of the nursing program at Newman University. Chance spent most of her working career helping operate the amusement ride manufacturing company founded by her late husband Harold, Chance Manufacturing Co., Inc. She was also the first lay woman to serve on the Kansas Newman College Board of Directors, and was a member of the Lay Advisory Board of St. Francis Hospital. When the nursing program at St. Francis needed a collegiate home, Chance played a key role in connecting St. Francis with Newman and establishing the nursing program at the university in 1979. The program has evolved into the strong and vibrant School of Nursing and Allied Health, which includes Newman’s most sought-after programs in Nursing, Occupational Therapy Assistant, Respiratory Care, Radiologic Technology, Sonography, Healthcare Science and Nurse Anesthesia. Chance received a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa degree from Newman for the university Core Value of Academic Excellence.
The Marjorie Chance Scholarship in Nursing will award scholarships to three students each academic year for the next three years. That scholarship program will be replaced by The Marjorie Chance Endowed Nursing and/or Allied Health Scholarship, which begins in fall 2012 and is designed to continue through perpetuity.
