Harper Nursing Scholars Program
The Harper Nursing Scholars Program is Creighton’s premier nationally competitive nursing scholarship and leadership program. Seven to eight Harper Scholars are chosen annually to receive a $40,000 annual education scholarship.
The Harper Nursing Scholars Program seeks to form academically talented students into reflective and compassionate practitioners, innovative scholars, confident advocates, and ethical nurse leaders through hands-on learning, enrichment opportunities, and a curriculum rooted in the Jesuit tradition.

Forming Ethical Nurse Leaders
Harper Nursing Scholars will gain nursing competencies, establish a framework for ethical decisions, develop a habit of reflection, and understand the relationship between health inequity, health disparities, and social determinants of health.



Four Pillars of the Program
These pillars serve as the foundation of the program and will be taught and reinforced every year. Programming is intentionally designed to give students the opportunity to put these four pillars into action.
- Leadership
- Advocacy
- Research
- Service and Justice

Harper Nursing Scholar Program Details
The scholarship provides funding for the following programming over the Harper Nursing Scholars’ four years:
- All four years:
- Jesuit values-based leadership development
- Annual networking luncheons with local and national nurse leaders
- Career development and mentoring with the program director targeted at living a balanced life
- Freshman year:
- Ratio Studiorum class dedicated to Harper Scholars during freshman year
- Critical issues class: NUR 170 "Caring for Yourself and Your community"
- Sophomore year:
- Legislative workshop at the Nebraska state capitol
- Junior year:
- Introduction to nursing research and opportunity to be mentored by a faculty mentor through the College of Nursing undergraduate nursing research program
- Senior year:
- Travel to the Dominican Republic during fall break to participate in Creighton’s ILAC program with five weeks of follow up activities and assignments for scholars’ community health rotation
- Leadership practicum
- Opportunity to present nursing research and network with regional and national nursing organizations
Educating Creighton Nurses as Leaders
Harper Nursing Scholars will be encouraged to seek leadership positions in local or national professional student nursing organizations, engage in undergraduate research with nursing faculty, participate in service opportunities through Creighton’s Schlegel Center for Service and Justice, join professional nursing organizations, and seek additional opportunities for advocacy.
Over their four years, Harper Nursing Scholars will grow in their pursuit of excellence as exceptional nurses and healthcare leaders.


Best BSN Nursing Program in the country

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Anne Harty, BS’97, MS/FNP’00, EdD’19

I came to Creighton from Sacramento, California, in 1993 to pursue a Bachelor of Science in nursing. After graduating, I earned a Master of Science and became a family nurse practitioner.
The College of Nursing faculty impressed upon me the importance of advocacy, leadership, service, and research. While in graduate school, I worked as a nurse coordinator and genetic research associate in Creighton’s Department of Preventive Medicine with Dr. Henry Lynch.
Upon graduating as a nurse practitioner, I joined Creighton Nephrology Associates with Dr. Bo Dunlay and served the American Nephrology Nurses’ Association locally, regionally, and nationally. One of my favorite roles was that of legislative director for the Midwest region and national health policy committee member.
While in California, I worked as a school nurse and was instrumental in advocating for state-wide legislation that required public schools to stock epinephrine. In 2021, a friend of mine and I teamed up to build Equivax, a model program to provide equity in COVID vaccine distribution. Our model became the official vaccine clinic model for Sacramento County.
In 2019, I earned a Doctor of Education in Interdisciplinary Leadership from Creighton and moved back to Omaha in 2022.
Contact
Anne Harty, EdD, RN, FNP
Director, Harper Nursing Scholars Program
AnneHarty@creighton.edu