GREEN BAY, Wis. — A new grant will help Northeast Wisconsin Technical College grow diversity in the ranks of nursing students it trains.

What You Need To Know

  • Northeast Wisconsin Technical College received a $1.8 million grant for nursing
  • It’s intended to help increase diversity in the profession
  • The grant is spread over four years and is expected to help about 50 students​

That's important to people like Elisa Lopez who is studying to be a licensed practical nurse.

She’s seen the difference diversity can make first hand on trips to the hospital with her mother.

“Every time I go with her to the hospital there are no Hispanic people that speak Spanish to help her,” she said. “It’s very important to have people that speak the same language as you to feel comfortable, you know? To feel supported.”

Lopez said she’s pursuing a long-time desire to help others.

“In Guatemala there are not a lot of sources that can help you reach that goal,” she said about being a nursing student. “Then I moved here and I see that I can do this. So now I’m doing it.”

NWTC was recently awarded a $1.8 million dollar grant from the federal government to boost student diversity.

Cindy Theys, one of the associate deans in the college’s Health Science and Education Department, said different backgrounds are an important part of delivering effective medical care.

“If everybody around you looks different than you, you’re not going to feel comfortable and neither person will feel comfortable,” she said. “If you've looked around in our community lately, people are looking different. That’s something that needs to be recognized and we need to pay attention to it.”

The grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spans four years and is expected to help train about 50 students. Theys said change won’t happen overnight, but it’s a significant starting point.

“If we can graduate nurses who look like our fellow community members these days, when they’re out there providing care, everybody is going to feel much more comfortable,” she said.

Lopez’s journey to being a LPN isn’t yet complete, but she’s on her way.

“It’s really important to have more diversity just to get in touch with everybody and to learn from everybody,” she said. “Everybody has something that makes them different, and that’s important.”