HAVRE — Montana State University-Northern has received the largest scholarship endowment in its history— $900,000 to support nursing students through the newly created Walter and LaVonne Norman Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship, established through the Norman family’s estate, will provide ongoing financial assistance to nursing students in Havre. University leaders say the gift is not only a major investment in education, but also in the future of healthcare across rural Montana.
Aneesa Coomer reports - watch the video:
MSU-Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel says, “With this endowment, and with some of the others we’ve recently got for our nursing program, it’s looking like any student who comes into our program to be a nurse is going to have some type of scholarship gift.”
Walter and LaVonne Norman were longtime residents of the Hi-Line. The couple homesteaded in Dodson, where they farmed and ranched for decades, before retiring in Havre. Throughout their lives, they were known for giving back to their community. Both have since passed away, but their legacy of philanthropy continues through the endowment.
Melanie Skoyen, managing director of the MSU-Northern Foundation, said the scholarship has a special connection to LaVonne’s life. She explains, “I had the privilege to meet LaVonne, and she relayed to me that she was a polio survivor and had always had nurses taking care of her. So it was really important to her that she would give back to nurses.”
MSU-Northern’s nursing program is a two-year RN to BSN track that aligns itself with the Bachelors of Nursing Science, so students with their Associate of Science in Nursing can complete the program, and become a four year nursing graduate. The program plays a critical role in rural healthcare by training students from the Hi-Line who are more likely to remain in the region after graduation.
Kegel explains, “If you talk to the providers and hospitals, it’s really hard to recruit nursing personnel. They like our program because the nurses that come through it usually stay here. That’s important for the Hi-Line—in its own way it’s really a grow-your-own program.”
The MSU-Northern Foundation’s mission is to engage alumni and donors while building an endowment that allows every student to receive some type of financial aid. In just the last year, the foundation has added about $5 million to its total endowment.
Kegel says, “One of our goals is to have enough endowments built up so that every student that comes to Northern has the ability to receive a scholarship, and we’re getting close to that.”
Skoyen says the Norman scholarship is expected to benefit all nursing students at Northern, and may even encourage some who worry about tuition costs to pursue a nursing degree. She says, “We are so grateful to the Normans for giving back to Northern, I think all of our nursing students will benefit from this scholarship.”
The scholarship will be need-based and is set to be awarded for the first time in spring 2026.
