Lauren Baldwin 11N 13MN is among the first students to complete the undergraduate portion of the accelerated BSN/MSN program. Baldwin, a former psychotherapist with a master’s degree in psychology, plans to work as a family nurse-midwife in a rural community.
The ABSN/MSN program has met her needs by providing “numerous opportunities to do service-learning in and out of the country, which is one of the reasons I came to Emory to study nursing,” she says.
She also is benefitting from the generosity of students before her. In 2008, graduating BSN students designated their senior class gift be used to support the Service Learning Trip Scholarship Fund. Fourteen students have received travel scholarships for the Alternative Winter Break program in Jamaica and the Bahamas and the Alternative Spring Break program in the Dominican Republic. Through these trips, students provide health care and education in another culture.
Last winter, Baldwin joined other students on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera to learn from Emory nursing faculty and local nurses. A travel scholarship funded by senior class gifts made it possible for her to go.
“Because I have debt from another degree, it’s hard to pay out of pocket for extra things,” says Baldwin.