The Volunteers of Ministry Saint Mary’s Hospital (MSMH) recently announced the recipients of this year’s health care scholarships to employees, or their immediate family members, of Ministry Health Care working in Rhinelander. They are Stacey Brooks, Neil Kasmarek, Teri Sankey and Lori VanderVoort.

Stacey is a certified nursing assistant at Ministry Saint Mary’s, and is enrolled in the nursing program at Nicolet College. Neil is working part-time in the hospital’s dietary department, and is attending Nicolet to become a radiography technician. Teri is currently the lead anesthesia monitoring technologist in the surgery department, and is enrolled in the nursing program at Nicolet. Lori works as a registered nurse in the emergency department, and is attending Concordia University to become a family nurse practitioner.

“We began the scholarship program many years ago to encourage people to pursue a career in health care and to hopefully return to work in our area,” said Mary Grieco, President of the Volunteers of MSMH. “We were able to increase the dollar amount of the scholarships this year by $500 each, due to the many successful fund-raising activities sponsored by volunteers throughout the year. We had several strong applicants this year-we are so fortunate to have such dedicated health care workers in our community.”

In addition to the four in-house scholarships the Volunteers awarded an additional two scholarships to graduating seniors at Rhinelander High School pursuing health care careers.