The Lucy Chand Nursing Scholarship

Criteria: (Amount Equal to One Full Annual Tuition Award) The intent of The Lucy Chand Nursing Scholarship is to extend a “helping hand” through financial assistance to the recipient. The recipient should be a full-time undergraduate Nursing student or a graduate Nursing student. Candidates should provide a short essay attesting to the need for this scholarship and submit it with the scholarship application. Though the award is not automatically renewable, an awardee may receive this annual scholarship more than once. Applicants are encouraged to reapply each academic year.

Lucy (Massey) Chand was born in India on May 22, 1908. She settled in the United States in 1978 after an illustrious career as a public health nurse in India from 1935-1967. In the 1930s, when the world was still in infancy regarding women’s rights, Lucy Chand was well ahead of her time embarking on a nursing career.

What Lucy Chand most exemplified in her life was her love for her family. She balanced a demanding professional career with that of a full-time mother and raised five children. Not only was she able to send her children to the U.S., she also fulfilled her own lifelong dream of coming to the U.S. She loved her adopted country, made many friends, and after twelve years of a joyful life in the United States, she died in 1991 and is laid to rest in Paxton, Mass.

Her drive and passion were passed down to her children. Her son Ronald H. Chand and his wife, Alina, have been beneficial to the future of Worcester State University. Ron is a former Trustee and member of the Worcester State Foundation Board, and both he and Alina sponsor an annual essay-writing contest in the memory of Paxton Police Chief Robert J. Mortell.

It is in the memory of his mother and his willingness to help provide a quality education to others that Ron Chand established this scholarship that bears the name of his mother.