On Tuesday, April 16, NPC Friends and Family learned they would be receiving a $102,000 grant award from the Del E. Webb Foundation. The funds will be used to assist students seeking licensure as Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) through Northland Pioneer College’s Nurse Assistant Training-Integrated Education Technology (NAT-IET) program. NPC operates the NAT-IET program for students with low academic skills and/or no high school diploma, and the need for entry-level healthcare workplace readiness skills. Students can now prepare for CNA certification and their high school equivalency diploma all at once. The program is being offered in the fall 2024 semester at NPC’s Little Colorado Campus in Winslow, White Mountain Campus in Show Low, and at the Whiteriver Center on the Fort Apache Reservation.
“This is an innovative and proven model for teaching and learning,” explains NPC Friends and Family executive director Betsyann Wilson. “The contextualized curriculum provides at-risk students with academic preparation and work-specific skills, fast-tracking them to potential living-wage employment.” The program recently received the “Innovation of the Year” award from the League for Innovation in Community College, an international organization that recognizes college innovations that improve the ability to serve students and the community. Wilson notes that the grant from the Del E. Webb Foundation will help instructors fill a critical unmet need related to providing access to the NAT-IET program for low-income students. “NPC supports enrollees through tuition waivers, classroom materials, and textbooks,” Wilson explains. “Still, potential students find getting into the class cost-prohibitive, because of the up-front outlays. These include a DPS-approved, Level I fingerprint clearance card, scrubs, shoes, wristwatch, and stethoscope. These items are needed before the students can even begin taking coursework.”
Wilson is deeply grateful for the grant, which can cover these costs for students. Still, as she points out, the college is unable to close the loop in making completers fully equipped to transition into the workplace. Low-income students are struggling just to make ends meet, so they lack the funds to pay for the exam for licensure. If they want to move on and enroll in NPC’s associate degree in nursing (ADN) program, for which NAT is a prerequisite, they struggle to pay for the HESI exam, which is required for program admission.
The grant project incentivizes students to attend class regularly and perform at a high level of aptitude by providing them with the items they lack as they complete the required competencies and certifications. Those who travel more than thirty miles, each way, to attend classes, will receive travel stipends. This is significant, because nine of the twenty students in the Fall 2024 cohort hail from Kayenta and will drive to the Little Colorado Campus in Winslow twice weekly. Those who graduate from the program will receive not only the CNA licensure exam fees but also a $130 scholarship to help them pay for textbooks for their additional ADN prerequisites. “We are so excited, not only to receive this generous grant but also to welcome members of the Del E. Webb Foundation Board to our NAT classrooms to see these amazing students at work,” explains Wilson.
Del Webb was a longtime resident of the Phoenix area, where he built the Del E. Webb Construction Company. One of his company’s greatest achievements was the development of Sun City, the first “active living” major retirement community in the country. Sun City not only transformed the Phoenix area but had a major effect on the sociology of the vast numbers of Americans who had or would eventually approach "retirement" age. A lifelong baseball fan, Mr. Webb was co-owner of the New York Yankees from 1945 to 1964. The Del E. Webb Foundation was founded to advance the legacy of Mr. Webb, investing in results-based programs that impact the future of our societies.
