David A. Straz, Jr. Hall was under construction the first time Evelyn Amorde’s family drove from Appleton, Wisconsin, to campus. The structure was walled off by a tall fence; the glass façade still incomplete. Amorde did not see, let alone step foot in, the building that she’d spend the next four years in until just weeks before freshman year.
The minute she walked in, she knew she’d made the right choice.
“Wow, it’s absolutely stunning,” Amorde remarked as she strolled around Straz’s atrium. “There’s such vibrancy and it has a welcoming aura. It’s so spacious. And I didn’t see very many nursing buildings that were five floors.”
Amorde’s sentiments were shared by more than 40 fellow incoming freshmen in the summer pre-admission intensive program, a four-day preparatory experience in late July for new participants in Project BEYOND-2, a federally funded program that provides support to students from underrepresented backgrounds. While this year’s PAI hit many of the same notes as the previous three—study tips, meet-and-greets with professors, technology training—it concluded with a tour of Straz Hall, which made these students the first inside the new nursing building.
They agreed that nursing staff saved the best activity for last.
“I thought the building was awesome,” Lauryn Sheasley says. “I couldn’t believe how lifelike it was. The simulated hospital rooms and doctor’s officers look just like the real thing.”
Project BEYOND-2 advisers led program participants through the newly renovated 103,000-square-foot space, pointing out the features meant to enhance the student experience, such as an expanded study lounge, student lockers and respite rooms. A glimpse of the enlarged simulation suite drew an exaggerated, collective “whoa” from the crowd. (“The sim lab was really cool,” Sheasley says.)
Of the four pre-admission intensives that Project BEYOND-2 adviser Carmella Castro has seen, this was the most dynamic, for reasons that went beyond the opening of Straz Hall. The 43 participants included in this year’s sessions was double what they’d ever had before. Castro noticed that this year’s cohort was eager to socialize with each other and make personal connections, which is not always a given with students at the start of a transition.
Nursing faculty and staff hope that the building’s layout can encourage these students to keep that trend going.
“If students want to study together after class, there’s so much space for them to do that; they’re not having to rent rooms in the library or find a space at the AMU. This is now their home,” Castro says.
Even though students were excited, they also felt a little uneasy about leaving home for the first time and coming to unfamiliar terrain.
“I’m a family girl; I love my family and the thought of being away from them is going to be hard,” Amorde says. “I know we have FaceTime and we can call each other, but not being able to see them is going to be a struggle at first.”
“On the panel, there were a few people who said that they were worried about failing classes and that’s definitely a worry of mine; I want to do well and I didn’t realize how common of a fear that was,” Sheasley says.
The PAI is meant to address such student concerns directly. Interactions with Project BEYOND-2 students and alumni at panels give incoming freshmen touch points before they arrive on campus, while visits to key student-facing administrative departments such as the financial aid office preempt potential issues before they happen. While Straz Hall provides the physical space for an inclusive community, the people inside the building do the hard work of creating it.
“I was off of work the first day we moved in here, but I came in anyway to set up my office because I was so excited,” Castro says. “We have so many tools here to serve students and now it’s up to us to use them.”
With a record-breaking class of 263 first-year students, the College of Nursing will have plenty of company to share in the PAI students’ excitement.
