If you are thinking about a career in Rehabilitation for those who may have disabilities consider the RSA Scholarship in rehabilitation. The Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) monitored by the US Department of Education, provides grants to colleges and universities to provide rehabilitation scholarship assistance to students with an aim to pursue a career in rehabilitation such as rehabilitation counseling, undergraduate education in the rehabilitation services and research and technology improvement for rehabilitation services. The program motivates the applicants to take Rehabilitation as a career option by getting professional “on-the-job” training.
The objectives of the program are as below:
•Identify and recruit qualified rehabilitation counselors-in-training who are committed to work with people with disabilities from diverse cultures.
•To train the counselors for better on job performance and long-term career.
•Provide the community with quality workforce that improves the lives of people with disability and in turn, enhances the quality of life for all.
The RSA; set-up under the Rehab Act, has an annual budget for more than $2.5 billion to support various activities including training the workforce for the Rehab careers, understanding the expectations of the people with disabilities, preparing community to serve such expectations and improve the quality of service through research programs. In short, the services include Vocational Rehabilitation services, Research & Training and Professional Development.
The RSA Grant is provided directly to the colleges and universities and hence the applicants interested in the program have to apply at their college or universities. The list of universities that provide such training program is available on the Government RSA Scholarship website.
An RSA scholarship in rehabilitation would provide to each applicant payment for the recipient’s tuition/fees and also a modest stipend each semester. Selected applicants are required to “pay back” the grant through the mode of full employment within the public rehabilitation program. Typical settings for the “pay-back employment” include State vocational rehabilitation agencies or organizations that have service arrangements with State vocational rehabilitation agencies; or Federally-funded centers for independent living. For each year of grant received two full years of service is to be done. Private “for-profit” organizations are also included provided it meets the Federal Regulation. Part-time employment is allowed based on certain conditions. The pay-back period begins only after the training is completed and the applicant is provided (2) years of grace period is also provided to the applicant for completion of the pay-back employment.
There are various other conditions which you need to discuss with the college counselor. Deadlines could vary from with each university so check in advance. As an example a very good RSA scholarship application process example is at Northeastern Illinois University. This provides lots of information about the application process and the guidelines.
Consider a career in rehabilitation and start with the RSA scholarship. Rehabilitation Careers provide excellent opportunities as Physical Therapist, Rehabilitation Nurse, Speech-Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Technical positions and many more.
A career in this field will surely ensure that the efforts are put to enhance and improve the lives of others who may suffer from physical disabilities as it serves the community as well which can be a very motivating factor in itself. Average salaries for this career stream range from $55,000 to $70,000 annually making this a very good lucrative career option as well.