Filipino Students participate in MSN-MBA program

By Kim Walker

Each year, Anderson University opens its doors to students from around the world who are drawn to AU’s academic rigor and Christian atmosphere. This year, AU continues in that tradition, broadening its international ties by welcoming 13 Filipino students into its joint MSN-MBA program, as part of a triangular partnership with Global Scholarship Alliance (GSA), Community Health Network, and AU.

Each of the Filipino students has different reasons for coming to AU, different goals to achieve, and different connections left behind, but they share a connecting feature: They feel a God-inspired desire to obtain a graduate degree from AU to better serve their families and communities at home. “The bottom line is this is God’s plan for me,” says Mae Fontillas. “Although I dreamed of this, I never thought it possible this soon. I thought I would come to the U.S. five years out of college, but I am just three years out and starting. I think it is God’s plan for me to enrich myself to help other people.”

The partnership between AU, Community Health Network, and Global Scholarship Alliance makes it possible for the students to study in the United States. GSA provides the tuition, books, and student health coverage. The university provides a world-class education for these students, along with the visa. Community Health Network provides each of them with 20 weekly hours of paid work as a registered nurse (RN).

Each of the 13 selected students had to pass the rigorous NCLEX exam (Nursing Certification Licensure Exam) in English in order to work as an RN in the United States. Each also underwent a rigorous interview and screening selection process.

According to program guidelines, the students can work 20 hours per week at Community North for the three-year duration of the MSN-MBA program, and then they may stay an additional year and a half to work full time. Once the four and a half years are over, the students must return to the Philippines to use their skills.

“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” says Paula Boley, associate professor and graduate coordinator for the School of Nursing, who was one of four who traveled to the Philippines to interview candidates. “The hospital gets RNs, we get students, and they (students) get a world-class education they can take back and implement at home.”

For Fontillas, the return home is part of the grand plan. She is here because she believes a dual MSN-MBA degree from AU will give her the opportunity to develop herself so that she may achieve her lifelong dream of building a missionary hospital in the Philippines.

“A hospital like ours (Community North) won’t work in the Philippines because most [of the people] are indigents. In the Philippines, you can only obtain quality health services if you go into a private hospital, and then you have to pay a lot. The poor might have access to public health, but there are no doctors, only nurses and midwives. A missionary hospital could use three-fourths of its funds for charity and allow better access to health services.” Alejandro Loresto also looks forward to the knowledge he will gain at AU and the opportunities it will bring at home. Although experienced in the law and nursing fields at home, Loresto says his part-time earnings at Community North far exceed his former full-time earnings. At program’s end, he hopes to return to his wife and two young children with leadership skills that will continue his advancement.

“Getting a degree from AU in the U.S. will be honored,” says Loresto. “It is believed that you must be very competent to get an advanced degree in the U.S. With it, people will believe in you.”

As AU is only one of 13 GSA sites nationwide and the only one of the 13 to offer a dual MSN-MBA, the competencies obtained from the program are to be acclaimed. In fact, it was the dual degree that caught the eye of Leah Flores.

“I chose the program offered at AU because it is a dual program,” says Flores. “The dual program was important to me because I worked in outpatient and my work was administrative, but I never had formal training in administration. I prayed about it and felt that it would be a good idea to learn how to handle the little resources we have in the Philippines.” Although each has differing end goals, those interviewed agreed that the process of obtaining a degree in a foreign country is as personally rewarding as the end goals themselves. Whether it has been the gratification of successfully passing the NCLEX exam in English to work as a nurse at Community North, learning to emulate the techniques of marketing professionals in the United States, or simply mastering the use of American technology such as dishwashers, it is as much about personal growth as it is about end goals. As Fontillas says, “I’m just happy and grateful to be learning.”