Read about how for some UMSON students, ROTC provides a pathway to a BSN degree, military commission, and career in the U.S. Army in the latest issue of “CATALYST.”
Photo: Cadet Jenny Fobang
Well before sunrise, University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadets Rachel Dewey and Jenny Fobang move stealthily across the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) campus, shouldering 35-pound backpacks. “Rucking,” or running and walking while carrying weight, is one of the many physical training demands that sets these Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) in Rockville, Md., apart from their nursing classmates.
For some UMSON students, ROTC provides a pathway to earning a BSN, receiving a military commission, and pursuing a career in the U.S. Army. Military nursing has been part of UMSON’s story since its inception. First superintendent Louisa Parsons set the precedent; she served as a nurse with the British Army in the early 1880s in Egypt and the Sudan and was awarded the Victoria Royal Red Cross from England and a medal of thanks from the Khedive of Egypt. After her time at UMSON, she served in the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and at Atlanta’s Fort McPherson as part of the U.S. Army Hospital Service.
From Navy Corps officers to Army generals, UMSON graduates have served across military branches domestically and internationally. In 2019, UMSON, ROTC, and UMCP entered a formalized nursing pathway agreement. Since then, UMSON has graduated three commissioned Army officers. All three received the ROTC scholarship, a merit-based award provided in return for a period of active military service after graduation.
These graduates are 2nd Lts. Rex Kim, BSN ’24; Liah Lawrence, BSN ’25; and Emily Farnham, BSN ’25. Dewey and Fobang, who also received the ROTC scholarship, will graduate in December and are on track to earn their commissions shortly after graduation.
UMSON nursing students in ROTC balance their nursing education with their Army training obligations. Each semester, they take a three-credit ROTC class and participate in drills at UMCP. This means traveling regularly between College Park, USG, clinical sites, and, often, part-time jobs. In addition, some participate in a monthlong, immersive Army Nurse Summer Training Program between their junior and senior years.
“Other students are yawning after waking up at 8 or 9,” Dewey said, whereas she and Fobang have been up since 5 a.m. “After I’m awake, after I’ve taken part in PT or a ruck, I feel so successful.”
Retired Army Lt. Col. Terry McCall, now the civilian Army ROTC recruiter for UMCP, said ROTC can be a challenge for nursing students. “Their ROTC class is in College Park. The physical fitness training is here. The tactical training that we do every week is here,” he said. So, the ROTC program makes accommodations to “bend and fit around the nursing program,” he explained.
Fobang and Dewey continue to hear that nursing comes first. They’re told, Fobang said, to “put your education first because we need nurses in the military, and we want you to excel.”
This flexibility, however, doesn’t mean the ROTC nursing students are exempt from passing required testing, tactical training, or physical fitness tests. Completing these requirements and earning their BSN culminates with their commissioning as Army second lieutenants. After graduation, these second lieutenant nurses head to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio for the Basic Officer Leader Course, where they continue to improve their basic soldier skills, such as fitness, navigation, marksmanship, Army fundamentals, and leadership, and prepare for their first hospital assignments and active duty.
Read more about the School of Nursing ROTC in the spring issue of CATALYST.
The latest issue of "CATALYST" magazine celebrates the students and alumni who represent the future of Maryland’s health, law, and social work professions. Read about a School of Nursing alumna who turned her 2023 Grid Pitch idea into Ryan’s Place, a health care center in Gaithersburg, Md.; how Maryland Carey Law’s Law and Health Care Program prepares students to serve; a School of Dentistry graduate who studies gene therapies to prevent and treat cleft lip; a School of Social Work graduate who has been appointed to Maryland’s Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs; the School of Pharmacy’s newly launched, one-of-a-kind MS in Artificial Intelligence for Drug Development program; and what’s on the desk of Courtney Jones Carney, assistant vice president of student success, leadership, and engagement.