What do cell phones, engineers and nurses have in common? They can all help rural Alabamians.

Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering has teamed up with the School of Nursing to utilize a grant from Verizon Wireless.

The Verizon Foundation awarded $23,000 to Loachapoka High School Nov. 19. The money will be used for Kid Check, a program that provides health screenings for children in rural Alabama.

“So many children and families in rural areas don’t have easy access to health care,” said Barbara Wilder, nursing faculty member involved with the Kid Check program. “Through this program, our students are able to identify children who may have a previously unrecognized need, while getting experience in the area of community health.”

Aside from aiding the underprivileged, the program educates nursing students. The screenings are free and offer referrals to local medical providers.

The College of Engineering works out logistical issues involved with processing paperwork.

Wireless engineering students and faculty have been developing systems involving devices which would transfer such data instantaneously.

Such practices shorten the procedure time and aid more children.

“This is a significant opportunity for the two colleges to be involved in an interdisciplinary project,” said Richard Chapman, associate professor of wireless engineering. “It’s important that the people making software be involved with the people using software. This project gets the developers and designers working together with the professionals who will really use the technology.”

The system is expected to be implemented as early as spring 2010. It will serve as experimental for use in other health care facilities, as well as in patient confidentiality legislation being considered by lawmakers across the country.

Such information includes the aforementioned referrals as well as possible dietary and exercise changes.

The Verizon Foundation was established to aid in social issues affecting various communities, providing grants and other services toward student achievement in addressing these issues.

It uses its Web site, Thinkfinity.org, to serve students from kindergarten through college, providing activities and information regarding health care issues.

The criteria of the foundation’s grants are that they attempt to remedy illiteracy and lack of educational achievement, domestic violence and abuse or lack of health sustenance and safety.

Once a grant is awarded, fulfillment of program objectives and other results are measured throughout the funds’ utilization.

“We focus on the issues of education and literacy and safety and health,” said Patrick R. Gaston, president of the Verizon Foundation, on the organization’s Web site.

Their work is done through partnerships with nonprofit organizations, grant-making that represents an investment in results and the volunteer spirit of Verizon’s 224,000 employees, Gaston said.

“Our goal is to help people achieve the skills they need to live, learn and work in the 21st Century,” Gaston said.