Supporting Students Through Emergencies
Summer 2026
New and longstanding resources help nursing students manage financial hardship and unexpected challenges as they pursue their degrees.
Imagine you’re a nursing student living at home because you can’t afford on-campus housing. Now imagine a house fire leaves you without a place to stay—and amid the chaos, you’re struggling to keep up with your studies.
That was the reality for a Rutgers School of Nursing undergraduate before she became one of the first beneficiaries of the Joanne Barkett Conway Fund. Through the fund, which provides emergency support to students facing urgent, unexpected needs, the school was able to secure on-campus housing, cover transportation to clinical placements, and replace school-related items lost in the fire.
Established in spring 2025, the Joanne Barkett Conway Fund is part of a $1 million gift from the Bedford Falls Foundation–DAF, founded by William “Bill” Conway Jr. and his late wife, Joanne. The gift includes $100,000 for the emergency fund and $900,000 to establish the Joanne and William Conway Nursing Scholarship.
“When we support students who want to get a nursing degree, we enable them to support themselves, their families, and ultimately the rest of us,” says Conway.
“These resources promote academic continuity and allow our students to focus more on their coursework and training while reducing financial stress,” says Bernadette McGeever, the school’s director of development. Some of the money from the Joanne Barkett Conway Fund will also be used to acquire nursing-specific items that often need replacing, such as clinical uniforms and stethoscopes, which will be available free of charge to financially vulnerable students.
The fund reflects the School of Nursing’s commitment to helping students navigate life’s exigencies that threaten their success or interrupt their studies. Supporting students in need is deeply ingrained in the culture across the university.
The Joanne Barkett Conway Fund is one of several resources available to students facing financial hardship. It adds to the School of Nursing’s long-established Student Emergency Fund, which recently received $100,000 in gifts from BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company).
As a new resource, “the Joanne Barkett Conway Fund has expanded our ability to assist our students, something we are always striving for,” says Michael Varano, MBA, assistant dean for student engagement and wellbeing. “That’s
an incredible blessing.”
Another undergraduate nursing student—who had been living in her car—demonstrates the impact of that assistance. Through the Joanne Barkett Conway Fund, the School of Nursing was able to secure emergency housing, supporting not only her academic success but also her overall quality of life.
The commitment to student success extends across Rutgers, where a range of programs and services help students manage financial hardship and other challenges while pursuing their degrees.
Jodiefoss Ramos, BS, knows firsthand how much that assistance can matter. Struggling to pay for food, housing, and tuition, she believed she had to do it on her own, and at one point questioned whether she would be able to complete her nursing degree. Support from the Rutgers Student Food Pantry helped her persevere through those challenges. In May 2026, Ramos was recognized as Rutgers School of Nursing’s Outstanding Senior of the Year before graduating with a bachelor of science in nursing.
“It gave me the support I needed to keep going when I wasn’t sure I could,” she says.
To make a gift to the School of Nursing supporting these efforts, visit nursing.rutgers.edu/giving.
