Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) hosted 130 attendees at their first Diversity Matters Symposium on November 16. 

Speakers at the event included:

• Dr. Veronica Scott-Fulton, vice president of patient services and operations at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, who related her journey from childhood to boardroom and all the challenges along the way
• Jacksonville native Tony Jenkins, market president of Florida Blue’s Central Florida region, who shared the importance of communication and having to set goals 
• Samantha Orr, RN, SCRN, stroke program coordinator at Memorial Hospital, who outlined the symptoms of strokes, the role health disparity plays and the demographics in Duval County as compared to the state of Florida
• Chef Viola Senior, 1992 FSCJ culinary program graduate, who provided attendees with a delicious array of Italian, Chinese, American, African and Hispanic dishes

This symposium was sponsored in partnership with FSCJ and the United States Department of Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant.  The grant supports 36 Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) students through scholarships until June 2017.  

The students participate in monthly workshops and community events to support the initiative to increase the number of B.S.N. nurses from underrepresented and disadvantage backgrounds working in health administration by 2020.