\\ v evelOPing Chl'istian Servants" was Harding' s molto and each college and department strove to uphold this goal. With mission trips offered throughout the year, the College of NurSing paved the way for students to consider entering the health care mission fi eld after graduating. One senior Nursi ng major, Melinda Birdwe ll , told of her exper ience in the College of Nursing and future plans to return to Africa to do medical mission work . The College of Nursing was founded in 1975 and hrst participated in health care missions in 1977. Over the years, the Coll ege of Nursing has had trips to numerous countries including: Nigeria, G uyana , Kenya, Uganda , Tanzania , Mozambique, Hondu r as, N icaragua and Guatemala. Birdwell went with th e program to Tanzania in the summer of 2009 for five weeks. While t here, she worked in the village of ChimaJa at a mission h ospital. Birdwe ll noted that th is trip to Tanzania reaffirmed he r d esire to do mission work. After graduation she planned to go to work for a few years and th en r eturn to Tanzania, or anoth er country in Africa. "I can' t imagi n e go ing there and not wanting to go back." Bil'dwe ll said , One of Birdwell's favorite stories from her time in Tanzania involved h e r taking care of a five year - old boy with cerebral malaria, She was able to give him some of h er own blood and pray over him for h ealing, The next day he was nne, walking and talking. "Cod is so tangible there," Birdwell said. "He answel'ed that prayer , In Bil'dwell's December 2009 Nursi ng graduating class of e ighteen, eight had already been on a trip dealing with medical missions, Of the same eighteen, twelve wanted to do short – te rm medical missions and two desi red to do lo ng- term medical m issions. Many more students showed interest in go ing on one of the health care mission trips in the future and also expressed interest in d oing some form of medical missions after gr adua ting , It is hard t o know how man y H arding ursing graduates have gon e into the field of medical missions afte r graduating. Many that end up going typically enter into the WO l'kfo l'ce in Ameri ca for a couple of yea rs after graduating to get exp e rience and then go into the mission field with teams , Birdwe ll p lanned to work in the States for a year or two and then later go to Africa. Even if long- term missions did not end up in her fut ure she planned to co ntinu e go ing frequently to Africa for four to six weeks every year , It was easy to see that the College of Nursing tr ied vel'y hard to uphold the motto of H arding, For students to integrate theil' faith with the profession of nursing was a goal of the faculty that Associate Professor J erry Myhan alluded to when he sa id : "We do encourage and our prayer is that some will catch the vision and want to do H ealth Missions , and it is not all fore ign. " Steven Chandler Speaking to the crOWd, Dr, Cathleen Shultz, Dean of the College of Nursing, accepts the honor of being named the president of the National League of Nursing (NLN), The NLN was the oldest nursing organization and the only one devoted to nursing education and educators. Jeff Montgomery 184 academics
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