News Releases

New Honors Program Established at the University of Maryland School of Nursing

August 30, 2004

Baltimore, Md. – The University of Maryland School of Nursing launched a new honors program this fall to recruit outstanding students and prepare them for leadership roles in clinical, research and academic settings. The program is designed to produce highly educated professional nurses to help alleviate the national nurse and nurse faculty shortages, and to meet the needs of the health care system of the 21st century.

Sponsored by the Aaron Straus and Lillie Straus Foundation, Inc., in partnership with the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the Central Scholarship Bureau, the program will provide special clinical and research opportunities for exceptional students seeking a challenging educational experience where they will learn and practice collaboratively in an interdisciplinary health care environment. Excellence in scholarship, clinical skills and research will be promoted through enriched coursework, involvement in research and intensive mentoring relationships with School of Nursing faculty. Students will be selected on the basis of their (outstanding) achievements in previous college coursework, curriculum, honors essay, school and community service, and school evaluation.

"The honors program is attractive to me because of the opportunity to have a mentor," says Katharine Giancola, one of the first 11 students chosen for the program. "Also, it is a 'program within a program,' which I believe will be an asset for learning."

"As a national leader in nursing education, research and clinical practice, the School of Nursing recognizes the need for highly skilled nursing leaders," says Janet D. Allan, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN, dean of the School of Nursing. "We have initiated this program to attract the best and brightest students who will be educated to meet the health care challenges of the future."

For more information about the School of Nursing's honors program, call the Office of Admissions and Student Affairs, 410-706-0501.