UM nursing school gets $5.24 million gift

The University of Maryland School of Nursing will give full scholarships to 157 new students thanks to a $5.24 million donation.

The gift is the largest in the school’s history and will support the expansion of its Bachelor of Science in Nursing, or BSN, program over the next five years. Of the students, 32 will attend the school’s entry-level BSN program at the University at Shady Grove in Rockville, while 125 will be registered nurses looking to earn their BSN degrees.

Many hospitals prefer hiring nurses with BSN degrees, which can make it difficult for nurse’s with associate’s degrees to find work, according to the university.

William “Bill” Conway, co-founder of The Carlyle Group, and his wife, Joanne, made the donation through their Bedford Falls Foundation, which has offered other nursing scholarships in the region, including a $4 million gift to the Catholic University of America School of Nursing in 2013.

“The [University of Maryland School of Nursing] has an outstanding reputation for the development of compassionate, competent nurses,” Bill Conway said in a statement.

Dr. Jay A. Perman, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, said in a statement that the Conways’ “incredibly generous gift” will help meet the demand for nurses in the region.