Hunter College Awarded $1 Million From Mother Cabrini Foundation

The Hunter College Foundation has received a $1 million grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, re-upping its commitment to the Cabrini-Hunter Fellowships for Social Work and Nursing Students.

The fellowships, established last year, enable low-income Hunter College graduate students to complete their master of social work degree at the Silberman School of Social Work or master of science degree in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at Hunter School of Nursing with a certification in Inter-professional Education.

“We are grateful and excited that the Mother Cabrini Foundation has recommitted to this important and successful program, which is adding so much to the education of our Nursing and Social Work students and to the communities they will serve,” said Hunter President Jennifer J. Raab. “It’s a dual contribution to the college’s mission of Mihi Cura Futuri — “the care of the future is mine” — and to Cabrini’s mission of improving the health and well-being of vulnerable New Yorkers.”

The goal of the fellowships — 30 were awarded last year — is to train and prepare future health-care professionals in interprofessional, team-based practices and place them in under-resourced communities in a variety of settings, from hospitals and health-care facilities to schools, community centers, private practices, and social-service agencies.

Such professionals are often the first resource for dealing with urgent community needs related to health — such as housing, food, and job security. They are greatly in demand at a time when the nation is suffering from an acute primary care shortage exacerbated by Covid-19 pandemic.

The Cabrini gift is the latest sizable donation to nursing education at Hunter.

Last month, the college established the Evelyn Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Program at the School of Nursing with a $52 million gift from Leonard A. Lauder in honor of his late wife Evelyn Lauder, a proud Hunter College High School and Hunter College alumna.

That gift, the largest in Hunter’s history, will create a pipeline of nurse practitioners to the city’s public hospitals. The game-changing donation is the largest-ever philanthropic gift to a single CUNY school.

About Hunter College

Located in the heart of Manhattan, Hunter College is the largest college in the City University of New York system. Founded in 1870, it is also one of the oldest public colleges in the country and famous for a student body that is as diverse as the city itself. Most Hunter students are the first in their families to attend college and many go on to top professional and graduate programs, winning Fulbright scholarships, Mellon fellowships, National Institutes of Health grants, and other competitive honors. More than 23,000 students currently attend Hunter, pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in more than 170 areas of study. The 1,700 full- and part-time members of Hunter's faculty are unparalleled. They receive prestigious national grants, contribute to the world's leading academic journals, and play major roles in cutting-edge research. They are fighting cancer, formulating public policy, expanding our culture, enhancing technology, and more.