The University of West Alabama Wednesday announced one of the largest contributions in its history. Nearly $1.5 million was committed to UWA.

"A large percentage of it is going to be used for scholarships and a new program of recruiting nursing students and recruiting pre-med students," said UWA president Dr. Richard Holland. "The money, particularly for pre-med, will be used as scholarships when they're in their third and fourth year of medical school."

This financial commitment is being made by the Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation as part of a new partnership with UWA. The money will mainly be used in the form of scholarships by the Ira D. Pruitt Division of Nursing at UWA.

The partnership between UWA and Community Health Systems will help provide UWA Nursing graduates with opportunities for employment at Community Health Systems Hospitals throughout Alabama.

"Part of our mission is to make sure that people have access to health care," said David Miller, president of Community Health Systems-Division 1. "We build hospitals, expand hospitals, provide equipment, but you also need allied health professionals to staff those facilities. So we've entered into a partnership with the University of West Alabama to support their nursing education program, and we've entered into a partnership with the Alabama Medical Education Consortium to help support the development of primary care physicians in the state of Alabama."

The nursing division has graduated over 1,000 associate degree nursing students since 1976.