No Longer Homeless

Last week I saw our new Health and Sciences building at Northwest University for the first time. As I walked in I saw Dr. Christensen, the dean, (a.k.a. my boss) and Ramona our program coordinator moving equipment into the new skills lab. Wow, the place in absolutely amazing. The halls are so spacious you could drive a car through them. The classrooms (yes that's pleural) each have the capacity for 54 students. There is a very nice student lounge, a computer lab, and lots of bathrooms! But wait, there's more... Dr. C. then gave me a little tour of the rest of the new school of nursing. He ended the tour right in front of room 242 which had my name on it! That's right folks, my very own office. I took that as meaning I am no longer orphaned!?!

This is my new office. I know, it sort of resembles a closet doesn't it. It's actually bigger than it looks, and it has even more space now that I made them take away some of the excessive furniture. At any rate, this a big improvement since last year. I was homeless then and most of the time when I was working on campus I went to the students computer lab. Sometimes I could get into the adjunct office but once I got in there I had to share a desk with Annalee Oakes. For those of you who don't know, Dr. Oakes is the biggest nursing Guru who ever lived. She was the former dean of SPU's school of nursing and is known around the world. Secretly I enjoyed sitting at her desk (though I was never brave enough to put my feet on it).
This year I will be designing and teaching my own class. I am developing curriculum for an Advanced Medical/Surgical Nursing course which will be a 400 level course required for all seniors. This will double as my thesis/scholarly project. In many ways I'm glad it's already scheduled into to the Spring semester. This will keep me from being one of those perpetual thesis writers. (I hope...)
It's just been so awesome to see God's blessing on this program. Just a few short years ago we didn't even have a classroom and Dr. Christensen's office was a broom closet (no joke)! We now have a beautiful new building, 5 international clinical sites, a great faculty, and a very supportive community. It's both humbling and exciting to be a part of this growing program.