Healthcare scholarships support
Monterey County’s next generation of healers
What do aspiring nurses, doctors, and other future healthcare professionals have in common? They face intense educational requirements, long hours of unpaid clinical training, and high costs for tuition, textbooks, scrubs, and other essential supplies. The cost of supplies and exam fees alone can total thousands of dollars before tuition is even factored in.
These barriers can prevent even the most capable students from pursuing healthcare careers. And when that potential goes untapped, it amplifies Monterey County’s already urgent shortage of healthcare providers.
The answer? Healthcare career scholarships
When healthcare students are backed by a community willing to invest in their education, barriers give way to opportunity, and the result is more local caregivers ready to meet our community’s growing healthcare needs.
Montage Health Foundation’s scholarship program makes that investment possible. In 2025, the program awarded a record-breaking $1.1 million in scholarships to 225 recipients, supporting local students pursuing healthcare degrees and local healthcare workers returning to school to advance their clinical expertise.
And it’s all funded through generous community donations to the foundation.
“Our scholarship program is a way for the community to take care of the people who will one day take care of them,” says Michele Melicia Young, director of Montage Health Foundation. “When students study here, train here, and are supported by their community, they’re more likely to stay here and give back to the place that invested in them.”
The human impact of community-backed care
For Charlie Dow, now a Montage Health nurse, the scholarship removed a financial barrier that could have delayed her career by years.
Dow attended the Maurine Church Coburn School of Nursing at Monterey Peninsula College, a program that allows students to concurrently enroll at California State University, Monterey Bay, to earn a bachelor’s degree while completing nursing school. The dual-enrollment structure saves about a year and a half of coursework but requires students to pay two tuitions at the same time.
“I wouldn’t have been able to afford to earn my bachelor’s while I was in nursing school,” she says. “Without the Montage Health Foundation scholarship, I might still be in school today.”
The scholarship allowed Dow to complete her education on an accelerated timeline and enter the workforce sooner, contributing directly to patient care in the community she calls home.
“When our community shows up for us,” Dow says, “we carry that support forward into the care we provide patients every day. Every patient I help is an opportunity to give back to the community that believed in me and my potential to be a nurse.”
Scholarships for healthcare students
If you’re ready to take the next step in your healthcare journey, Montage Health Foundation is here to help you reach your goals.
