St. Catherine University officials announced earlier this month that they received a $1.5 million grant to provide scholarships for students seeking their community health worker certificate.
Scholarships will be distributed over three years to students to be certified as a CHW, a frontline public health worker “who is a trusted member with a close understanding of the community served,” according to the American Public Health Association.
CHWs can provide services like community education and informal counseling, serving as “cultural brokers” between the health care system and that community, said Meghan Mason, associate professor and director of the undergraduate public health program at St. Catherine.
Students will be awarded scholarships to fund up to the full cost of the program based on financial need and the applicant pool. The application for awards for this spring is open until Jan. 9.
“COVID-19 brought to light a lot of the health disparities and inequities that we already knew existed,” said Mason. “We had changing health information all the time, and making sure not only that you have that available to folks in the appropriate language, but being appropriate when you’re communicating with different audiences.”
Mason also said CHWs are helpful in addressing the current healthcare worker shortage by assisting doctors and nurses with tasks that require less training.
“They allow all of the other clinical professionals to work at their credential level,” said Mason. “They try to relieve some of that burden, particularly by trying to navigate and follow up with patients.”
St. Catherine is one of five state colleges and universities that offers the CHW certificate program and was one of 29 institutions nationwide funded by the federal Health Resources and Service Administration grant.
Currently, only two to three students complete the certificate alone each year at St. Catherine, Mason said. The scholarship has the potential to fully fund the cost of up to 100 certificate-only students and between 18 and 24 undergraduate students attaining the certificate as part of their public health degree.
Mason said the $9,000 price tag for a certificate at St. Catherine can make it difficult to recruit students for the CHW program, and she thinks the scholarship opportunities will make the program more attractive to students already pursuing a public health degree.