$1,000 Healthcare Education Scholarships Available

Courtesy of Northern Plains Eye Foundation

The Northern Plains Eye Foundation (NPEF), whose mission is to promote eye health for the people of the Northern Plains, will be awarding $1,000 Healthcare Education Scholarships to outstanding high school graduates for the 2012-2013 academic year.

NPEF’s Health-Care Education Scholarship Program was launched in 2005 in recognition of the need for future health-care and eye-care professionals in our region.  Since the program’s inaugural year, NPEF has awarded sixty-four Health-Care Education Scholarships totaling $60,500 to students pursuing full-time post-secondary health-care studies.

NPEF will again bestow the Dr. Paul L. Zimmerman Memorial Healthcare Education Scholarship to the most distinguished scholar.  This award, presented to its first recipient, Steven A. Turpin, in 2011, is awarded in honor of Dr. Paul L. Zimmerman, a former member of NPEF Board of Directors and Ophthalmologist with Black Hills Regional Eye Institute, who lost a brave fight with malignant melanoma of his right eye last year.

NPEF’s Healthcare Education Scholarships are available to high school seniors pursuing full-time healthcare related studies at a college, university or technical institution.  All healthcare related courses of study will be considered, but preference will be given to those focusing on eye-related fields such as Ophthalmology, Optometry, Optician, or Ophthalmology/Optometry Technician.  Students must be residents of the Foundation's service area, which extends approximately 300 miles in each direction from Rapid City, SD, and includes all of South Dakota, northwest Nebraska, northeast Wyoming, southeast Montana, and southwest North Dakota.

Scholarships are awarded based on overall academic merit, extracurricular and healthcare related activities, leadership, letters of recommendation, and planned healthcare or eye-related course of study.  Students must have a minimum unweighted GPA of 3.8 and a minimum ACT of 28 in order to apply.  Scholarship application materials are available through high school guidance counselors, on-line, or by phoning (605) 716-6733 to request application information be mailed or emailed to you.  Applications must be postmarked by March 1, 2012.