The Ruth Larson Nursing School Scholarships
The Ruth Larson Nursing School Scholarships are designed to assist deserving students from the Diamond Mission School in Moharicamp, Dirpai, Dhemaji, Assam, India (“Diamond School”) with costs of attending the nursing school at the Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research in Dimapur, Nagaland, India, or alternately the nurses’ training program operated by the Baptist Christian Hospital in Tezpur, Assam.
These institutions were identified as being among those important to the work of the late Ruth Naomi Rask Larson, whose exemplary provision of emergency triage first aid, nursing services and pharmaceutical drugs in the absence of any of these essential services in what was then known as Baligaon in Dhemaji District, Assam, India is honored by this Scholarship.
Among eligible candidates, recipients are selected by the Timberline Board based on an academic record, or testing, that indicates a good chance to be successful in nursing school training and a subsequent career upon graduation. Additional consideration may be given to financial need.
The full Scholarship Agreement describing the program, including an expanded biographical sketch of Ruth Larson’s life, is available upon request. An excerpt from its Preamble is reprinted below.
The Scholarships intend to cover approximately 50% of the cost of tuition, board and incidentals for students accepted by and attending either of the referenced nursing education programs.
The Timberline Board has determined that administering the Scholarship furthers the purposes for which Timberline exists, including its focus on affecting young lives through education that includes a sense of a global community. It has established a restricted Larson Scholarship Fund in which donations intended to help make the scholarships possible are deposited and from which Scholarship distributions are made to the nursing education programs.
Contributions to this Fund are tax-deductible.
A letter from Ruth
From the Scholarship Agreement’s Preamble
“Ruth Larson was the sole practicing triage emergency first aid provider in the larger Baligaon area of Dhemaji District in Assam, India, in the 1950s and 1960s. This was a frontier area isolated by rivers from the greater Assam Province of India.
“Ruth, though not a certified and trained nurse, took upon herself to provide this urgent service as the need was large and there was no one else to provide emergency first aid, triage assessment and immediately-needed basic drugs. Many found comfort and support for their health needs from her presence day or night.
“Ruth carried out this service with guidance from Dr. Joseph Schoonmaker, who routinely visited to conduct clinics, minor surgery and on occasion, 10-day cataract surgery camps in this area of Assam. Ruth Larson was an essential person in the larger community as it grew and faced all manner of health issues typical of this region and time. Triage cases in need of hospital services had to be driven to Tezpur’s Baptist Christian Hospital that was 10 hours away, assuming two primitive river ferries were operational.
“Dana Larson, Ruth’s husband, would routinely use the family vehicle for these emergencies. It was a full-service frontier mission station.”