25 Community College Health Care Students Receive 2011 Frank Lanza Scholarships

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, with the generous support of Medical Education Technologies, Inc. (METI) and L-3 Communications, Inc., are pleased to announce the 2011 recipients of the Frank Lanza Memorial Scholarships. The scholarships recognize the accomplishments of students enrolled in allied health programs offered by regionally accredited community colleges. Twenty-five students received scholarships of $1,000 each.

Frank Lanza Scholars will be recognized April 9 during the Third General Session of the Phi Theta Kappa Annual Convention in Seattle. In addition, recipients will have the opportunity to meet METI Chairman Lou Oberndorf. Oberndorf was influential in establishing this scholarship in honor of his friend, Frank Lanza.

The scholarships target part-time, full-time and international students with financial need who have completed 50 percent of their course work leading toward earning an associate degree. Candidates did not have to be members of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society to apply. A panel of independent judges selected the recipients by application based on academic and leadership accomplishments as well as community service.

"Funding provided for these scholarships is critical to helping community colleges students meet the high cost of completing these rigorous health-related programs," said Phi Theta Kappa's Executive Director, Dr. Rod A. Risley.

Most of the 2011 award recipients are enrolled in registered nursing programs and allied health fields. Community colleges educate 63 percent of allied health professionals. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics 2010 figures, employment outlook in the health care industry has continued to increase. The largest gains were in ambulatory health care services and in nursing and residential care facilities.

The recipients of the 2011 Frank Lanza Memorial Scholarships include (* notes membership in Phi Theta Kappa):

The scholarship is named in honor of Frank Lanza, a founder of L-3 Communications, a global aerospace and defense company that produces $15.7 billion in annual revenues and employs more than 63,000 people worldwide. The scholarship endowment is funded equally by L-3 Communications and METI. In creating the endowment, Oberndorf, a long-time friend of Lanza, cited Lanza's visionary leadership and commitment to charitable causes as inspiration for the program.

Lanza served in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Korean War. He was a member of the board of directors for the Coast Guard Foundation and received the 2003 Distinguished Corporate Leadership award from the Soldiers', Sailors', Marines' and Airmen's Club. Lanza was also a member of the board of governors for the Aerospace Industries Association and the American-Italian Cancer Foundation. A philanthropist, Lanza and his wife supported a variety of charities through a family foundation.

Based in Washington, D.C., AACC is the primary advocacy organization for community colleges at the national level and works closely with directors of state offices to inform and to affect state policy. AACC represents almost 1,200 two-year, associate degree-granting institutions and more than 11 million students. Community colleges are the largest and fastest-growing sector of U.S. higher education, enrolling close to half (43 percent) of all U.S. undergraduates.

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, headquartered in Jackson, Miss., is the largest honor society in higher education with 1,270 chapters on college campuses in all 50 of the United States, plus Canada, Germany, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the British Virgin Islands, the United Arab Emirates and U.S. territorial possessions. More than 2.5 million students have been inducted since its founding in 1918, with approximately 125,000 students inducted annually.

Based in Sarasota, Florida, METI has been a leader in interactive human patient simulation since 1996. The entire family of METI simulators, including baby, adolescent and adults, are designed to mimic human medical scenarios including trauma, heart attack, drug overdose and bioterrorism.  Today, more than 7,000 METI simulators are in use by defense organizations, medical schools, nursing schools and hospitals for health care education.  METI is privately owned by Lou Oberndorf and Baird Capital Partners (BCP) of Chicago.

SOURCE American Association of Community Colleges