Education 4.12 - Flipbook - Page 10
10
| Sunday, April 12, 2026
Photo: Adobe Stock
University Programs Address Workforce
Needs in Nursing, Aerospace Engineering
and Forensic Accounting
Colleges create pathways for students to succeed and land jobs
By Alex Keown, Contributing Writer
S
everal core industries in
Maryland are facing a workforce shortage, including nursing and aerospace engineering. To address these challenges, the
state’s colleges and universities developed new curriculum that will provide
training to meet these needs.
Across the country, there is an
increasing shortage of nurses. There
is a projected need for 275,000 nurses in the U.S. by 2035. In Maryland,
there is an estimated need for 13,800
more registered nurses by that same
year. To meet the critical need for
new nurses, Anne Arundel Community
Eugenia Osei, student nurse
College (AACC) created the Future
Nursing Professionals Scholarship, a
community-funded initiative designed
to remove financial barriers for nursing students and ultimately bolster the
region’s health care workforce.
If it wasn’t for the scholarship,
student nurse Eugenia Osei says it’s
unlikely that she could afford school,
even though she works full-time. Osei,
who will graduate with an associate
degree in nursing in December, called
the scholarship, which covers 95% of
her tuition, a blessing in disguise.
Prior to beginning AACC, Osei
earned a bachelor of arts degree in
health sciences. At the time, she knew
health care was the field she wanted to
enter but didn’t know she wanted to go
into nursing. She took a position as a
tech in an oncology ward at the hospital
and enjoyed working with the patients.
That sparked Osei’s desire to further her
education and become a nurse.
Before starting the AACC nursing
program, Osei entered an accelerated
nursing program at another school.
However, that program wasn’t what she
expected and didn’t provide her with
a training foundation that made her
feel successful. Dejected, she left that
program and found her way to AACC.
Before beginning her studies, Osei met
with faculty who assured her that she
would have a different experience at
AACC because of the way the courses
are structured and the support provided by faculty. And so far, everything is
meeting her expectations.
“The traditional, in-person classes
followed by the labs are just what I
need to succeed,” says Osei. “I’m going
to be a successful nurse because of
AACC.”
Like nursing, the field of aerospace
engineering, a cornerstone of the state’s
economy, is facing a labor shortage.
That need prompted Maryland Applied
