On April 16th, 2007, The Student Employment Office hosted an event to recognize students who participated in the Americorps Program.
Hi, my name is Janell Sinclair and I am a junior in the nursing program at Beth-El. I will be graduating in May of 2008. Right now I am interested in working as an oncology nurse, but I am leaving my options open since senior year will bring many new experiences in other areas of nursing. I am also a proud mother of two beautiful daughters and I have been volunteering at their schools for the past seven and a half years. My life is very busy and I do not have time to add anything else to it; that is why AmeriCorps works so well for me. AmeriCorps gives me money for school for hours that I am already giving to my clinical experiences and to my volunteer work with my girls' schools. All I have added to my life is a little paper work. Since I am an at home mom and full time student I need all the help I can get to pay for school. I have actually increased the number of hours that I volunteer at the schools, which benefits both my girls and I. I thoroughly enjoy both my volunteering and my clinical time and feel very fortunate to be earning money for my education at the same time. I have already earned one scholarship and am well on my way to earning a second one. I cannot find one negative aspect of the AmeriCorps system, it is a simple way for me to earn money for my school and provide community service at the same time. AmeriCorps just fits so easily into my life. Thank you, AmeriCorps, for this opportunity!
My name is Summer. I am a junior in the nursing program here at UCCS and will be graduating next year. It is exciting for me to have reached this point in nursing because I have dreamed of being a nurse all of my life. Throughout my schooling this dream was my driving force to do well. School has never been easy for me, I have struggled with reading and spelling, but whenever I thought I would not be able to make it through, I would remind my self that I had to get through this in order to become a nurse. I am now enthusiastic to bring that dream into reality and Americorps has helped me do this. It has done this both by helping to fund my way and by encouraging the service and caring side of nursing. Through my Americorps service time I have been able to render care to some wonderful people and to see the difference one is able to make if they take the time to care. I have so many examples of this but one that specifically comes to mind is a patient I had within the first few months of my Americorps service. This patient was having a bad day, she would not smile, she was not caring for herself well and was she very down. During my day I was able to find time to sit with her. We did not really even talk but that time I spent with her made a world of difference. By the time I had to leave the floor she called me her angel, she was smiling and her hair was brushed.
Hi, my name is Heather Sanchez and I am a junior in the nursing program here at Beth-El College at UCCS. This is my fourth year as a nursing student and I am happy to say that next year will FINALLY be my senior year. Nursing school has been anything but a cakewalk and, at times, I find myself wondering, what exactly have I gotten myself into? I have learned how to deal with extreme amounts of stress and nerve, yet still be able to start an IV in someone's arm, how to tie a hospital gown and NOT be fully exposed and, of course, how to tell a patient "No, that funny smell really isn't you." However, in the past few years I have come to realize that nursing is much more than all of the dirty work many people see us doing. A nurse means having a caring heart, an empathetic ear, and a compassionate soul...and getting to wear Crocks and scrubs for the rest of my life.
My current Americorps placement is at a mental health facility here in Colorado Springs. This particular clinical rotation has been challenging, to say the least. I have had to redefine what the word "healing" truly represents...and how simply lending an ear can often times provide the greatest healing experience. At the same time, it has been extremely enlightening to work with mental illness as I have learned to see our world through very different eyes.
For me, it was such a relief to find that Americorps supports not only the hard work and service that nursing students give to the community, but the hard work of other students working toward a career that will better our society. Thank you, Americorps, for giving me that motivation and encouragement that I have needed, more often than not, to continue toward my goal in becoming a nurse.