Top 10 Strange Healthcare Scholarships

You may not be aware of it but not all scholarships aim to be prestigious; some exist in part to be down right unusual. However, all scholarships serve to help students achieve their educational goals and weird and wacky scholarships play a definite role in this purpose.

Typical scholarships that many students qualify for tend to be highly competitive. Therefore, your chance of winning one of these scholarships is somewhat low. Essentially, you must be the best of the best. However, weird and wacky scholarships usually have requirements that narrow the amount of qualified candidates. This means that if you qualify you have much higher chances of being awarded the scholarship. These types of scholarships open up doors to students who are no less deserving than academic superstars but are also unlikely winners of traditional more competitive scholarships. The key is finding those weird and wacky scholarships that you qualify for.

Students planning on entering the healthcare field face excellent job prospects upon graduation due to the large population of aging baby boomers who need an increasing amount of medical attention. There are also a growing number of scholarships being made available to these students, including those of an unusual nature. Here are 10 of the stranger healthcare scholarships to consider.

• Clinique Nursing Scholarships
  http://www.cliniquescholar.com/index.tmpl?ngextredir=1
  These scholarships are awarded to women who are pursuing careers in nursing and who have the desire to not only make their patients feel good, but also look good. The popular make up company plans on dedicating 1.2 million dollars to their nursing scholars program by 2014. Recipients of the scholarships must also work part time as a Clinique Associate Consultant. The scholarship winners bring their clinical expertise to the make up counter while having steady flexible work while in school.
• William R. Goldfarb Memorial Scholarship
  http://www2.arrl.org/arrlf/goldappl.html
  This scholarship is available to those students in nursing programs at the bachelor's level and who must possess, of all things, a radio operator's license. Applicants must submit a page about how being an amateur radio operator has influenced their life and must demonstrate financial need. The scholarship offers a $10,000 award to be used toward any nursing education program. Nursing student radio operators take note!
• The Edna A. Lauterbach Scholarship Fund
  http://www.nyshcp.org/content.aspx
  This scholarship is available to those studying in New York to work in the nursing field but who also have entrepreneurial aspirations to open and run their own home care agency or community-based care focused businesses in the future. The scholarship's namesake, Edna Lauterbach, was an RN who was a pioneer in the home healthcare industry.
• Stressed Out Nurses Scholarships
  http://www.stressedoutnurses.com/tag/scholarship/
  Nursing students compete for $500 awards. Scholarships are given to those who can demonstrate they handle stress flawlessly.

The next six scholarships are not quite as amusing as the first four, but are still highly targeted. If you qualify, chances are high that you can win the scholarship.

• The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Scholarships
  http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/
  This scholarship program is for those students attending medical school and it pays all medical school expenses and even includes a monthly living stipend. In return, scholarship recipients must serve in an underprivileged area once their residency is complete. Recipients must also specialize in a field of medicine that is most needed in underprivileged areas; family practice, gynecology and pediatrics are common fields.
• Cordelia M (Dee) and Irvin Esry Undergraduate Nursing Scholarship Fund
  http://nursing.missouri.edu/
  This scholarship is solely for clinical nursing majors enrolled at the Sinclair School of Nursing. A strong preference is given to those who are originally from small and rural communities and towns.
• American Holistic Nurses' Association - The Charlotte McGuire Scholarship Program (CMGSP)
  http://www.ahna.org/
  These scholarships are awarded annually in June to any nursing student who can demonstrate a passionate commitment to holistic healing and medicine.
• American Nephrology Nurses' Association
  http://www.annanurse.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/ANNANurse
  This is a scholarship for nephrology nurses with a knack for invention. More specifically it is for nephrology nurses who are going back to school to continue their education and who have demonstrated the ability to develop or support a program or innovation to improve patient outcomes.
• National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners - McNeil PNP Student Scholarship
  http://www.napnap.org/
  This scholarship is awarded to pediatric nurse practitioners who are from rural and underserved backgrounds and who will practice medicine as a pediatric nurse practitioner in rural and underserved areas.
• The Norbert Siegfried Scholarship Program
  http://www.stanthonysmedcenter.com/scholarship/index.asp
  This scholarship is only for those students in the healthcare field that have a parent employed by the St. Anthony's Medical Center in St. Louis Missouri.