Want to be a nurse?
Explore Cru Nursing Summer Camp gives high schoolers a taste of college life, UMHB nursing program
Avery Stricklin checks the temperature of Izzy Gutierrez during the 2018 Explore Cru Nursing Summer Camp. Both women said the camp solidified their decisions to pursue nursing at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. They graduate from UMHB’s Scott & White School of Nursing this years, and Izzy has a job waiting at McLane’s Children’s Hospital in Temple. Avery is seeking a nursing job in the Houston area. Courtesy photo
DAVID STONE | OUR TOWN TEMPLE
High school juniors and seniors from Texas and beyond will be at the University Mary Hardin-Baylor this summer to experience nursing school, college life and Crusader pride.
The students will be participating in the 10th annual Explore Cru Nursing Summer Camp from June 11-17. It’s a perfect opportunity to explore nursing as a career choice.
“The camp is limited to 24 high school juniors and seniors,” said Kelda McMullen, a UMHB nursing professor who facilitates the camp. McMullen was one of the camp’s creators back in 2013.
“Most of the students are from Texas, but we’ve had high schoolers from Chicago, California and Colorado as well. This year we’ve received an application from Oregon.”
The deadline for registering for the camp is April 15 and the cost is $695. Interested students can apply at https://www.umhb.edu/health-sciences/nursing/explore. The application process includes writing essays and providing transcripts.
The camp — offered by UMHB’s Scott & White School of Nursing — provides students with the opportunity to experience nursing school and the profession as a whole, plus it gives prospective students an opportunity to get to know the university and its traditions.
“I went to the camp in summer 2018, the year before my senior year at Belton High School,” said Izzy Gutierrez. “I had an interest in becoming a nurse and my mother attended the nursing school at UMHB. I remember I was so terrified — it was my first time away from home. It was great, and I got a stethoscope out of it.”
“Explore Cru Nursing Summer Camp solidified my desire to go to nursing school and to go to UMHB,” Izzy said. “It was the right decision — not many schools have the equipment we do here.”
Izzy has a nursing position at McLane’s Children’s Hospital in Temple lined up after graduation.
Another young camper in 2018 also is getting ready to graduate from Scott & White School of Nursing.
“I finish up in May, and I’ve been applying for jobs in the Houston area,” said Avery Stricklin, a graduate of Spring High School. “Camp was eye opening for me — it gave me a chance to connect with the professors before school even started.”
“I fell in love with UMHB, and coming to this camp let me know that this is where God wants me to be to study nursing,” she said.
McMullen said students arrive at camp on Sunday and spend the week in a UMHB dorm. They are joined by current nursing students who introduce the campers to college life.
“They will live on campus, eat at the dining hall and attend worship services. We have a sports night where we play volleyball and other games. At night, they will have homework.”
“The campers go to class from 8 to 4, just like in nursing school,” McMullen said. “Early in the week they will spend time in the classroom, then we will put them in the labs and have them work with our human patient simulators.”
“The students will learn to conduct cardiac assessments and perform CPR on the simulators,” she said. “When they leave, they will be CPR certified.”
During simulations with the manikins — the name for medical mannequins — students will get instructions from the dummies themselves.
“Camp instructors will be in a control room and can talk to the students through the manikins,” McMullen explained.
Also during the week, nurses from Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Temple will visit the camp and speak about the value of nursing in today’s medical world and career opportunities.
Campers will be given a topic to explore during the week, and on Friday they will make a presentation on what they have learned. Topics could be related to heart disease, taking blood pressure or other medical-related subjects and skills.
“The students who come to camp are always eager to learn and excited to live on a college campus for a week,” McMullen said. “I look forward every summer to meeting new students who desire to take a week of their vacation and learn about the profession of nursing.”
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