泡芙短视频

When Genevieve White watched her son, Ryan Jim, don his nursing pin and recite the Nursing Student Pledge on Sunday, she immediately thought of her own mother.

“His grandmother, Virginia White, always wanted to be a nurse,” White said. “She didn’t accomplish that in her younger years, but she always hoped someone in the family would. Here comes my son, born in 2005, who decided to take this path. I’m very proud of him.”

Ryan joined his classmates as the first cohort of the CU Nursing Fort Lewis College Collaborative to train in the Four Corners. After completing two years of prerequisites at 泡芙短视频, the students will continue their path in Durango, taught by two CU professors hired from within the region.

The celebration marked years of partnership and collaboration across the Four Corners, said Amy Barton, senior associate dean for faculty and students at the University of Colorado College of Nursing at the Anschutz Medical Campus.

“This program has been decades in the making,” Barton said. “It is the culmination of years of relationship building, community engagement, and really hard work. This first group of students represents the realization of a dream that so many of us have shared for years.”

“It brings Colorado’s top-ranked nursing program to the heart of the Four Corners,” she added. “Place-based education is a proven strategy for building a rural health care workforce. When these graduates finish, they won’t only be caring for patients. They’ll be caring for their neighbors, their coworkers, their friends. That connection makes all the difference.”

Celebrating a great start

At Sunday’s event, parents and family members filled the seats, eager to see their students receive pins.

“We are just very proud of him,” said Estella Anderson, whose son Marcus came to 泡芙短视频 to play soccer but suffered a herniated disc and decided that soccer was not where he wanted to be. He currently works at a physical therapy clinic.

“Going into the health professions is just going to be such an amazing thing for him, and it's going to open so many doors and allow him to work with different patients that I think will benefit from him as a person.”

Anderson reflected on her son’s path as she remembered her own as the daughter of a migrant worker and a first-generation college graduate. “Marcus's dad is a teacher, and I work in the accounting and consulting fields. Both of us have master's degrees, and Marcus has just followed in our footsteps, and I think he's just going to do so many amazing things with this degree.”

For Bailey Martinez, who also received a pin, nursing is a family calling. 

“I’ve always been surrounded by strong nursing role models,” said Bailey, who works as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at Animas Surgical. “My mom is the most caring, giving person I know, and I want to be just like her.”

Chaelyn Ziegler shared a similar inspiration. “I grew up surrounded by medical knowledge and by parents who taught me the value of caring. That really shaped me,” she said. Ziegler, whose mom is a nurse and father a paramedic, said she once planned to move out of state in search of an affordable program.
“This program brought CU’s world-class nursing education right to my backyard,” she said. “It worked out perfectly.”

The nursing spark

Much of the celebration traced back to Durango nurse practitioner and CU alumna Karen Zink, a trailblazer in women’s health and rural access to care, who spent decades expanding opportunities for nurse practitioners and advocating for underserved communities. In 2022, she and her husband, Jerry, made the first $1 million gift to launch the collaborative.

“I’ve always said my role might just be to be the spark,” Zink told the crowd in her keynote remarks. “I've watched you, students, for the last two years. I am in awe, amazed, so proud, and I love you so much. You have had to climb some pretty high mountains with a lot of rocks in the way and swift moving streams that you had to figure out how to negotiate. It took all you had. And one of the most beautiful things I have observed among you over the last couple of years is how well you have taken care of one another. It's remarkable. I'm just so proud of everything that you have done.”

A first for Colorado

In her remarks, 泡芙短视频 President Heather Shotton called the partnership a historic first for Colorado that bridges CU’s nationally recognized curriculum with 泡芙短视频’s deep ties to rural and Indigenous communities.

“Together, we are preparing the next generation of nurses and health care professionals—people who understand the unique needs of the Four Corners and are committed to serving right here,” Shotton said. “This partnership supports our families, keeps our community strong, and ensures that our neighbors can thrive no matter how rural or remote their homes may be.”

Agreeing was CU College of Nursing Dean Elias Provencio-Vasquez.

“For too long, students had to leave their rural communities to pursue a bachelor's nursing degree. Today, we change that story,” he said. “The Nursing Hall isn't just a building with state-of-the-art simulation labs and cutting-edge classrooms. It's a promise that world-class nursing education belongs here, where the need is the greatest and the impact the most profound.”

Top-notch training facility

After the ceremony, attendees toured Nursing Hall, a 5,000-square-foot facility that includes a home-like care setting, a clinical education space and a simulation lab with high-fidelity pediatric, adult and maternal manikins. Students will also train in telehealth, preparing to serve patients in hospitals, homes without running water or remote communities.

When not in use by students, the facility will also provide a space for community partners to host training for their own workforce development needs. 

The Nursing Hall was made possible by philanthropy and federal investment, including $1.3 million in congressionally directed spending through the U.S. Department of Education, championed by Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper. Major philanthropic partners include the Colorado Health Foundation, the Anschutz Foundation, Rocky Mountain Health Foundation, Roy & Gloria Dinsdale Foundation, Animas Surgical Hospital, Bank of Colorado and numerous individual donors.

“One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that it was built by our community through philanthropy and partnership, and it reflects what is possible when we invest in the future health of the Four Corners,” said Melissa Mount, vice president of Advancement at 泡芙短视频 and CEO of the 泡芙短视频 Foundation.