Spring 2005

Message from the Dean | Doctor Honors Nurse and Mother | UNM Alumna Endow Nursing Scholarship | Benefactors with Books | Achieving Our Goals is Challenging | It's Celebration Time!

Establishing an endowed scholarship fund takes remarkable generosity. Endowment donors help people whom they’ve never met—and may never meet—achieve their education goals. Typically, donors are intimately connected to the program they’re supporting, but in the case of Drs. Ivan and Dale Melada, admiration, not familiarity, is the compelling force behind their generosity.

Several years ago Ivan needed heart surgery. He went to UNM Hospital for his medical care, and the quality of the treatment he received deeply impressed both him and his wife. The excellence shown to him by the medical staff inspired the couple to begin thinking about giving back to UNM’s health sciences community. In July 2004 they established the Dale and Ivan Melada Endowed Scholarship in Nursing.

“The current shortage of nurses and nursing faculty influenced us,” says Ivan. “We have a nursing tradition in the family as well. My wife’s great-grandmother was a nurse at the turn of the century, our daughter is a surgical nurse and our son is trying to get into nursing school.”

Ivan and Dale met while they were both students at West Chester State College in Pennsylvania. They moved to California, where Ivan earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of California-Berkeley. In 1966 the Meladas relocated to Albuquerque. Dale attended UNM and earned an Ed.D. in curriculum and instruction with a double minor in language and linguistics. She worked as an administrator at Albuquerque Public Schools, retiring in 1999, while Ivan served UNM as an English professor. He retired in 1998.

The scholarship, which became fully funded in February 2005, is open to registered nurses and licensed practical nurses who are returning to school for an advanced degree, as well as college graduates who wish to earn a bachelor of science degree in nursing. Candidates should have earned at least a 3.0 grade point average on their last degree.

Rosemary Gregory, development officer for the College of Nursing, says that through their generosity, the Meladas are assuming a role of real leadership.

“Their sense of commitment to students and to education is exemplary,” she says. “They really understand the impact education has on communities, and even more, what impact a nurse can have on a person’s quality of life. They are true philanthropists.”

The College of Nursing will name the first scholarship recipient during the 2005-06 academic year, which will, coincidentally, correspond with the College’s 50th anniversary in September. Ivan and Dale look forward to helping a student attain his or her academic and professional goals in nursing, and hope that the state legislature will give some funding to the College for permanent faculty positions and endowed chairs.

“We like the idea of helping students,” Ivan says. “We feel that if the state can help out the [nursing] teachers, we’ll help the students get here and stay here. A scholarship may be the tipping point to enable someone to study at the College of Nursing.”