EDUCATION

UCHealth Ascend Career Program

UCHealth staff can now take advantage of a variety of education programs with additional financial support, including fully funded education programs for select priority career pathways. This new program is designed for the success of working adults with busy schedules and big goals.

Visit uchealth.guildeducation.com to learn more, sign up for a free account and begin exploring your options. ​​​​​​​

Beyond tuition reimbursement, each UCHealth region has its own unique offerings for employee education. Employee donors make a tremendous difference in the number of scholarships offered.

Thanks to donations from employees like you, as well as individual donors outside of UCHealth and businesses and corporations, Longs Peak Hospital Foundation, Memorial Hospital Foundation and Northern Colorado Foundation offer scholarship programs. Scholarships are open to employees working in each foundation's particular service area. Scholarships are available to support permanent and relief employees’ academic pursuits toward certification, licensure, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or doctorate.

Donations help employees advance their careers: 

Longs Peak Hospital’s rehabilitation clinic began offering a lymphedema clinic in May 2019. Lymphedema is a sometimes-debilitating swelling that can occur in the limbs, chest wall, abdomen and pubic area and is most commonly caused by damage to lymph nodes as part of cancer treatment.

The lymphedema clinic is the result of a collaboration between lymphedema experts from UCHealth rehabilitation clinics in Denver and Fort Collins and Lauren Brown, Longs Peak Hospital’s certified lymphedema therapist.

Lauren received a scholarship in 2018 from Longs Peak Hospital Foundation to pursue certification in lymphedema therapy. She was awarded a second scholarship in 2019 to pursue national certification in lymphedema therapy and undertake further training in specialty treatment areas for lymphedema, such as head and neck lymphedema and alternative treatment approaches. In January 2020, Lauren earned Lymphology Association of North America certification.

“Being awarded the scholarships,” Lauren says, “opened new doors for me and for the Longmont community. Most people don’t think about it, but for those with lymphedema, it’s a really big deal to have a normal-size leg or arm again. It means you can wear ordinary clothes and go out into the community feeling comfortable and confident, not to mention the medical benefits. I love being able to facilitate tangible progress that gets patients excited and involved in their own wellbeing.”

Longs Peak Hospital Foundation’s scholarships are made possible through donor generosity—including employees who donate to scholarship funds. Scholarships help our high-caliber workforce advance their skills, accomplish their professional goals, and provide exceptional care for our patients.

An employee "pays it forward."

Ruthie Weyant, MSN, RN, CCRN-CMC, works at Medical Center of the Rockies and is a past scholarship recipient and current foundation donor. She believes in education as a stepping stone.

In 2005, Ruthie was raising her children and pursuing her master’s degree in nursing. She received three scholarships in a row from UCHealth Northern Colorado Foundation, and she was grateful—aware that she would not have been able to attend her MSN program if she did not have the scholarship money to supplement her single-parent income.

“I was very appreciative of the financial assistance I received from the foundation scholarship program," Ruthie says. "I called UCHealth Northern Colorado Foundation to explore ways I could 'pay it forward' when I completed my education. I found out it was an easy process to create my own scholarship. I started my scholarship fund in 2010, donating to it regularly through Give Together. Since then, each year some funds have been awarded out of my scholarship, and some funds have been kept back to accumulate with the goal of saving enough to create an endowed scholarship. In 2021, enough funds accrued to endow the scholarship, and it is now the gift that keeps on giving! Through the interest income it earns, the scholarship will provide payouts into perpetuity.

“My scholarship is called the Ruthie Ann Weyant ‘CAN-DO’ Scholarship—because if I can do it, then you can do it.”

Join Ruthie in supporting the scholarship program. Your donation directly offers colleagues more stepping stones to succeed