Twenty-six young Bahamians studying for degrees in healthcare have received financial assistance from the Doctors Hospital Dr Meyer Rassin Foundation towards next year’s tuition.

With the privilege of being enrolled in various higher education institutions in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, including the Bahamas, these ambitious young Bahamians are in high anticipationhighly anticipate of the next step they are taking toward their medical healthcare careers and ultimately coming back to help their country.

The Doctors Hospital Dr Meyer Rassin Foundation was created in 1999 in honor of the late Dr Meyer Rassin, a leader in healthcare in the Bahamas from 1942. Although the Foundation also assists in the purchase of medical equipment and from time to time provides financial assistance to Bahamians who are unable to afford necessary medical care, the vast majority of the money raised provides scholarships for Bahamians pursuing higher education in all areas of healthcare.

At the opening of the ceremony where the students received congratulatory wishes and their scholarship checkscheques, Nephrologist Dr. Judson Eneas, who chairs the scholarship committee, gave themoffered a word of encouragement: “You will encounter moments where you feel like everything is going great, like you are all that and you’re on top of the world. And then you will encounter somebody who will try to convince you the opposite. Just get up, dust yourself off and continue.”
He proceeded by tellingto tell the parents and students gathered at the scholarship presentation ceremony: that “The Dr Meyer Rassin Foundation is here to support you, finance you and encourage you and we want to see you succeed. That’s what we’re here for.”

The Dr Meyer Rassin Foundation aims to finance these privileged students, not only because of their great talents and abilities, but also because the career path they have chosen will benefit the Bahamas and therefore help with research, development and improvement on these very necessary disciplines in the Bahamian Health healthCare care system. Most of this year’s scholarship recipients are working towards becoming doctors, however the Scholarship board recognizes the need for a variety of specializations in The Bahamas. This year’s group includes students studying Physiotherapy, Medical Technology, Nursing, Pharmaceutical Studies and Medical Laboratory Studies.

Most studentsrecipients, just like Treasure Kenny, who will be studying Audiology at the University of Akron in Texas, see the scholarship given to them by the Foundation as a great opportunity, especially because of the goals they have set to achieve in the Health Care field, not only abroad, but especially in their own country.

“I’ve never been there before, so I’m very excited. My studies will be for about 4 years and when I finish I would like to get training and return back home, to the Bahamas,.” she said.

Others like Atarah Pinder, who is in her third year of studying Psychology in Minnesota at the moment, heard about the Foundation through a friend and immediately applied.

“I’m immensely grateful to Doctors Hospital and the Dr Meyer Rassin Foundation for awarding me this scholarship and I’m so grateful to God for everything the that He has done for me and all the opportunities that’s I have been able to come across throughout my journey. I’m thinking about going into Industrial and organizational Psychology, but my ultimate goal is to get a Doctorate in Health Administration. With my background in Psychology I can use it to help the administration of the hospital, because I think that there is a big stigma against disorders and psychological health in the Bahamas. My goal is to try to implement programs in to hospital that will help educate Bahamians and bring awareness to psychological disorders so it wouldn’t be perceived as negatively,.” she said.

The Doctors Hospital Dr Meyer Rassin Foundation receives grants from Doctors Hospital as well as other private donors in order to fund the scholarship program. The Foundation also holds fundraising events to ensure that each year they are able to assist deserving young Bahamians.