Hope College junior Jeana Longoria of Howard City has won a scholarship from the Kalamazoo-Muskegon chapter of the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA).
Applicants for the $1,000 awards competed on the basis of essays on why they chose to pursue a career in nursing. Longoria was recognized during the chapter's award banquet on Friday, May 1, at the Amway Grand Plaza in Grand Rapids. She was one of five recipients along with students from Grand Rapids Community College, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University and the University of Michigan.
Longoria is a nursing major at Hope. In the fall, she received one of only six $500 scholarships awarded statewide to Hispanic students by the National Association of Hispanic Nurses-Michigan Chapter (NAHN-MI). After graduation, she hopes to pursue a doctorate in nursing.
Her co-curricular activities at the college include the Nykerk Cup competition; playing on the junior varsity volleyball team; and playing goalie on the women's lacrosse team, which is a club sport at Hope.
Longoria is the daughter of Robert and Dianne Longoria of Howard City. She is a 2007 graduate of TriCounty High School.
Founded in 1971, the NBNA is a non-profit organization designed to provide a forum for collective action by African American nurses to investigate, define and determine the health care needs of African Americans and to implement change to make available to African Americans and other minorities health care commensurate with that of the larger society. NBNA represents 150,000 African American registered nurses, licensed vocational/practical nurses, nursing students and retired nurses from the United States, Caribbean and Africa, with 79 chartered chapters in 34 states.