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Kelly Sullivan |
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Nursing graduate to help wounded U.S. soldiers
During her time as a nursing student, Kelly Sullivan completed a three-week internship in Hawaii. It may sound like a dream assignment, but not in the way most people would characterize it.
“I cared for three soldiers wounded in Iraq, and it was difficult,” said Sullivan, this year’s President’s Excellence Award winner in URI’s Military Science Program. “But I realized helping soldiers is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
Sullivan, a member of the URI Army Reserve Officer Training Corps, was commissioned a second lieutenant just a few hours before receiving her bachelor’s degree in nursing. By January, this newly minted Army officer-nurse will wing her way to the Army hospital in Landsuhl, Germany where she will treat American soldiers injured in the Iraq war.
“Here she is, Miss Florence Nightingale, ready to go treat our solders, but she has all the mental and physical toughness of a solider and she loves it,” said Army Lt. Col. Paul Krajeski, who oversees the URI ROTC program.
Originally enrolled at Salve Regina University, the Milford, Mass. resident transferred to URI during her sophomore year. She began her ROTC experience at Salve Regina and then signed a contract for a full military commitment at URI.
“I liked the fact that it was a bigger school,” Sullivan said. “There is just more variety. Everywhere I went to class, I got to meet new people. Coming to URI was the best thing I could have done.”
She also liked being part of a tight-knit ROTC family at URI. “My fellow ROTC students are just phenomenal.”
Her mother, Laurie, and father, David, and brother, Kevin, were all at the commencement. But her father, a former Marine, is a little anxious about his daughter’s next step. Still, Sullivan is ready and thrilled to be going to Europe.
While she said one is never fully prepared to see the terrible trauma inflicted by war, she said that her nursing and ROTC education at URI have given her the edge she needs to succeed.
“The Army gave me the leadership and mental capacity, which will help me understand what the soldiers are going through because I am a soldier, too.”
By Dave Lavallee
