Nursing school is rigorous, takes fortitude, and can be overwhelming in the best of times; but what happens when you add an NCAA sport, a toddler and a newborn, or a complete career switch to the mix?
Five College of Nursing students share their experiences, the support they have found at the college and across campus, and the ways they flourish as non-traditional nursing students.
Austin Smith, BSN student
Austin Smith joined the Marine Corps at 17 after a traumatic childhood. He spent eight years in the military before coming to the University of Iowa to fulfill his dream of becoming a nurse. Smith and his wife have two sons, the youngest of whom was born this summer.
What led you to join the military? Growing up, It was not a good situation. I was subjected to a lot of abuse, which is what led me to join the Marine Corps when I was 17. I was a motor transport operator for eight years, and went all over the world.
Why nursing? I always knew I wanted to be a nurse. I just love helping other people; it's kind of who I've always been. It really solidified when I was in Afghanistan [during the 2021 evacuation], and the Abbey Gate bombing happened. Seeing so much loss of life and knowing that I can learn so much more to help other people; the whole experience really resonated with me.
How do you balance school and family? My wife does a lot of the work. I mainly take care of the laundry, the dishes, cleaning the house, and making sure it's good for her in the morning. She stays home three days a week but also works. I like the fact that all our classes are together. This semester it's all early classes, but that gives me the rest of the day to study and I can do dinners with my family now, which is really nice.
Future plans I worked in the Surgical and Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit for a short while and I really loved it. I want to become a nurse practitioner and study emergency medicine and maybe do research further on down the line.
Support They have the veteran’s association over at Calvin Hall, and I've made a bunch of friends there. That's my main support group. There's always beauty in the struggle. I know ultimately my past made me a better man and it taught me how I want to raise my sons. I'm very intentional with my kids. I don't ever want them to feel like they're not loved, because I felt that growing up and it’s an empty hole that still haunts me today. I don't know if that'll ever truly get healed.
Cassey Bullard, PhD student
Originally from West Point, Iowa, Cassey Bullard was a hairdresser on the East Coast for most of her career. She met the right people at the right time and began her PhD in Nursing this fall.
How did you become a nurse? I was working as a hairdresser, and I had quite a few clients that were nurses. I saw that I had a strength for connecting with people, and I wanted to fi nd something where I could make a difference in people's lives. A client who was a school nurse explained her community college trajectory to me. Knowing her and her path opened up something that I could see as being possible for myself. I earned my associate's degree in nursing and then worked at a community health center as a pediatric nurse. I completed my BSN at Curry College in Massachusetts while I was working there.
How does your past contribute to being a good nurse? I learned so much as a hairdresser. I think sometimes an experience like that can be devalued, but that's the reason I was an effective nurse— because I was a hairdresser. For instance, I knew when I needed to speak and when I needed to hold space for someone, and I knew how to create common ground with someone very quickly I think doing hair was like a proving ground for me to get those skills to be an effective and compassionate nurse.
Why are you pursuing a PhD in Nursing? In college, I fell in love with evidence-based practice and research. It was just a series of interacting with the right people at the right time that made it possible for me to consider pursuing a PhD.
Why Iowa? I chose Iowa mostly because of family. I love it here. I'm happy to be back where I'm from.
What is your experience as a first-gen student? I literally did not know how people got into college because I didn't have a guidance counselor and my parents didn't graduate college. I had to work to fi nd my own way, which made me resourceful and resilient. I have moments where I feel very uncomfortable in my knowledge base, or lack thereof. No one's telling you it’s normal, so it's like fumbling around in the dark. I try to think back on the moments in my life that I have felt really uncomfortable, and they're usually moments of growth. That feeling of having my boundaries pushed is when I know that I'm going to come out better than when I went in.
Future plans I loved training new nurses, and at the salon I was head of the education program for cutting. I could see myself being happy as a professor, staying in academia and getting to do my research at the same time.
Ryan Arceo, BSN student
An avid drummer, Ryan Arceo joined the Hawkeye Marching Band his freshman year. As he begins clinical coursework, he transitioned to working for the band, but values the skills performing taught him.
Why nursing?
My mom is a nurse, and Filipino culture in general is very associated with nursing. I really like the patient care aspect and the number of things I can choose to do, as well as the job stability. How did you become involved in Hawkeye Marching Band?
I've been a drummer since sixth grade. I got interested in drumline in high school, and by senior year I was the drumline captain. Hawkeye Marching Band is something really big that connects a lot of people. Over the past two years, I've developed really good relationships with a lot of people across the band.
What was the time commitment? Rehearsals are from 3:40–5:30 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, with additional music rehearsal on Tuesday night. Game days took up our entire day since we had to be at Kinnick around six hours before kickoff to rehearse for the drumline lot show. Drumline is the only section that's required to have the music memorized, so I also had to spend a lot of time practicing and making sure I knew the music.
How did you balance school and marching band? Starting my nursing course load, I knew that if I did drumline again it would have been extremely stressful. Instead, I’m part of the Marching Band Work Crew, which oversees a lot of the organizational and logistical parts of the band. It’s a paid position, and it allows me to focus more on school. I appreciate the things that drumline taught me, like mental discipline, dedication, and learning to work well with other people to achieve a common goal. Now I'm the co-president of the Filipino Student Association and I do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu off campus.
Advice Writing out your schedules and learning time management very early is really important. So is knowing your list of priorities.
Future plans I see myself in healthcare leadership and finding different ways to improve things that are done systematically.
Abigail Thomson, BSN student
When Cedar Rapids high school senior Abby Thomson was invited to attend the University of Iowa and join the Iowa rowing team, she thought it was a joke. It wasn’t. Thomson learned to successfully balance the life of a Big Ten athlete with that of a nursing student and will graduate in December 2025.
Why nursing? I worked as patient care tech and I liked being at the bedside and having the interactions with the patients and family.
What was your schedule like? It’s 20 hours of practice a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday you are lifting weights at 7 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday, you’re going to practice at 6 a.m. Then in the afternoon you are coming back for more.
How did you balance nursing school and rowing? [Academic Program Advisor] Linda Myers was my best friend! I didn’t know if I could do it, and she said, “you're going to do this and you're going to get me the sweatshirt one day that says Iowa Rowing on it.” So, we walked through, step by step, how I was going to do it. I had a lot of help from the college. Their communication and changing things like clinicals to fit my schedule was amazing. They basically said, “you're not going to forego this experience. You're going to be a student athlete and a nurse at the same time.” With rowing, you get four years of NCAA eligibility and mine ended May 19th, 2025. Every day for the last four years I've had practice after school or on a Saturday morning, so this semester I’m learning what life is like without that.
Advice You can do it. Communication is number one, and you need to let everyone know ahead of time what's happening. At the beginning of every semester, I sent out two paragraphs to each professor letting them know who I am, what's going on, these are the dates I'm going to be gone, etc. If you communicate, you can do it, especially with this athletics program and this college.
Future plans I want to become a pediatric oncology nurse. Getting to do some Dance Marathon activities through athletics helped me realize that kids with cancer is the population I want to work with.
Eliza Greenfield, BSN student
Balancing nursing school and Iowa Cheer was not easy, but Eliza Greenfield made it work. Now in her final semester of school, she knows the skills she learned along the way—like trust, teamwork, support, and communication—will make her a better nurse.
Why Iowa, why nursing? I always knew I wanted to do nursing, so the Iowa program was a big draw. I also really loved how Iowa had a great game day atmosphere and thought it would be super awesome to cheer for the Hawkeyes.
What was your schedule like? We cheer for football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men's and women's wrestling, volleyball and gymnastics. On top of the games, we have practice 3 - 4 times a week, usually 3 to 6 p.m., and we lift twice a week for an hour.
How do you balance nursing school and cheer? It comes with a lot of time management. That meant making schedules in advance – knowing all my assignments, knowing when all my tests are coming up, and then building in time to cook dinner, to sit down and study, to get enough sleep and to have a social life and decompress as well. I'm not doing cheer right now. I knew it would be too difficult, with internship and everything. I now get to have a semester as just a college student, which is nice. Last weekend was my first time in the stands of a football game ever in my whole life!
Has cheer helped you become a better nurse? Cheer taught me a lot of life skills. You’re literally getting thrown in the air, standing on top of people, and having people stand on top of you, so there comes a lot of trust in that and a lot of teamwork. You can't do cheer without your whole team, and you're only as good as your weakest link.
Future plans As of right now, I really want to be a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse.
Advice If there's ever a time where you feel like you can't keep up, communicate that. Your teachers and coaches will never turn you away. Make calendars and be ahead of things. School can feel really daunting, especially nursing school. But college is the time to put yourself out there and try new things; you can always take a step back if you need to.
► Read more from the 2025 Iowa Nursing magazine