Donor Spotlight: Roleto and Amparo Ordona Endowed Scholarship in Nursing for Community-Based Senior Care

Supporting students to grow community-based care

Ron Ordona, left, established an endowment in honor of his parents to support future students interested in community-based nursing.

Visiting his mother at her pharmacy, writing pretend prescriptions and soaking up all aspects of the health care environment shaped Ron Ordona as a child. In his Filipino grade school, he thought that would be his future. Ultimately, he chose nursing—a decision that brought him to the United States and will bring opportunity for future nursing students at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis.

“I knew I could get a job directly after completing a bachelor’s degree and support myself,” Ordona says. “I never regretted that decision and my parents’ dedication to invest in my education. They told me then, that this is their legacy.”

The financial reality of obtaining a nursing degree was not lost on Ordona. Scholarships supported his college endeavors. His parents filled the gap. Today, he juggles roles as a nurse practitioner in his practice, a house-call provider in Lincoln, California, a business owner of four residential care facilities for the elderly and a bedside nurse at UC Davis Medical Center.

He first invested in the School of Nursing through payroll deductions. Seeing the value of that smaller contribution, he decided to increase his impact and establish the Roleto and Amparo Ordona Endowed Scholarship in Nursing for Community-Based Senior Care, to honor his parents and reward future graduate students interested in community-based nursing.

“When I care for homebound seniors in their homes, rather than having them visit the emergency department for preventable reasons, I know I’ve made a real difference in a family’s life,” Ordona says. “I want future nurses to experience that sense of fulfillment. Plus, I want to ensure someone is there to take care of me when I enter that phase of life.”