Helping Future Nurses
Ed and Nancy Hanenburg
Edward (Ed) and Nancy Hanenburg, long-time donors to Grand Valley State University, recently expanded their Coopersville Promise Scholarship to include students attending the Kirkhof College of Nursing.
The couple started the scholarship in 2008, along with their children, to guarantee support to Coopersville High School graduates who attend Grand Valley. “We have a great school system in Coopersville,” Ed explained, “and we wanted to offer them an opportunity to continue their education.”
Ed and Nancy have a storied history of giving back to their communities. Ed helped establish and served as president for the Coopersville Area Community Foundation, served as chair on the Ottawa County Planning Commission, and as an advisor of the GVU Foundation. For 13 years, Nancy served as the president and executive director of the Grand Haven Area Community Foundation and helped found the Grand Haven Children’s Advocacy Center, where she serves on the board of directors.
Expanded Impact
Nancy also serves on the board of trustees at the Corewell Health Foundation. During meetings, board members discuss areas of focus for their work, and through those conversations Nancy confirmed “there’s clearly a shortage of good, high-quality nurses.”
Nancy spoke with Ed about the problem, and they decided to expand the impact of their scholarship by including up to four additional awards for nursing students from Coopersville.
The Kirkhof College of Nursing at Grand Valley is a competitive program with a limited number of admissions per semester. Students in this program work closely with the top hospitals in Grand Rapids, and Ed and Nancy hope many of their scholarship recipients will stay in the area and reinvest in their community. “We hope these nursing students will end up in the Corewell system,” Ed said.
Looking Behind and Looking Ahead
Both long-time residents of Ottawa County, Ed and Nancy have watched Grand Valley grow through the years. “We would drive through campus occasionally,” Nancy said, “and we knew Grand Valley was expanding.”
That helped make the decision to provide scholarship money to Coopersville students an easy one. “Grand Valley had a great reputation,” Ed said, “and we felt deeply that if students in our community couldn’t afford to go to school, maybe we could help in some way.” Much of Ed and Nancy’s philanthropy has been centered on the needs of children and youth. “There’s a lot of things that people can give to,” Ed explained, “but there’s not many things better than helping the next generation.”
Donating to Community Roots
The Coopersville Promise Scholarship has lasting impacts on Coopersville High School graduates. “We get the nicest letters and notes from students who received our scholarship,” Nancy said, “and that means a lot.” Ed added that, “It’s just great to find that your scholarship has allowed these students to develop and graduate.”
Ed and Nancy encourage fellow donors, and those interested in donating, to look at their own community roots for philanthropic opportunities. “It would be great if others took a look at the high schools they came from and said, ‘I should make a difference by offering scholarships to Grand Valley for my school,’” Ed explained. For the Hanenburgs, “giving back to a community that we care about and helping the next generation is very satisfying.”
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Read about one of the Hanenburg's scholarship recipients and the impact their gift has had here.