Amber July had been helping out with the care of her younger sisters for years when she first heard what a career in nursing involved. Prioritizing the needs of others and allocating resources were things she had been doing all her life. “I can make a career out of this!” she thought. Some high school friends told her about RINI, and she made the switch for her sophomore year.

One of the things that most struck July about her early RINI experience was the requirement that she wear scrubs to school. During her 30-minute city bus commute, the responsibility of representing the nursing profession immediately impressed her. 

“You’re this little person who’s going to high school, and you’re wearing scrubs—like people definitely look at you differently,” she said, “like you were professional now.” The dress code instilled a sense of confidence that July said made her feel “you matter, and you’re important, and you’re going to become something important.” 

The professional focus emerged in academics as well when a favorite science teacher framed lessons in terms of nursing roles. July explained one person would be assigned to be a nurse manager who would lead the group, another a nurse scribe, and another in charge of quality control. “Science wasn’t my forte,” said July, “but I remember being a sophomore in high school already thinking of myself as a nurse.”

July’s sense of herself as a nurse was further solidified the summer before her senior year at RINI. She won an essay contest sponsored by RINI and became one of three students to attend a three-week summer study-abroad trip with University of Rhode Island (URI) students to Cape Verde. During the trip, July visited many health care facilities including a hospital maternity ward. The intimate and welcoming environment where she interacted with mothers and their newborns helped her see the connection between nursing and community health, a revelation that she brought back to her studies at RINI.

With the support of teachers who July said knew and cared about her as a person, July went on to earn 29 college credits. She also earned CPR and first aid certifications and a certified nursing assistant (CNA) license. “I’m forever grateful for that,” said July, who worked weekends as a CNA for most of her high school and college years. She credits the work and her study-abroad experience with shaping her approach to school and career.

In high school, being a CNA gave July a sense of purpose. “I was at the bottom of the food chain, per se, and my goal was eventually to be at the top. So I thought, if I don’t do well in school, there’s absolutely no point of me being a CNA.” 

In college, she saw how working as a CNA would make her a better nurse. “You can see who was a CNA and who wasn’t,” she said, “because some nurses have this mentality where they’re kind of above CNA work, and they’re not going to do anything that a CNA can do. And it’s just kind of detrimental for the patient for a nurse to have that mentality.” 

July also saw that by working as a CNA, she had more experience and self-confidence than her college classmates. She saw classmates who felt insecure about approaching patients for the first time or taking their blood sugar levels, whereas she had been doing those things for years. She was also able to make more of her clinical experiences in college. “You don’t really get in clinicals all the experience that you really want,” said July, “but, for me, I was able to adapt my clinical experience to my needs better because I didn’t have to overcome that hurdle of knowing how to go in and approach the patient and interact with their family.”

July graduated from URI in the spring of 2020 with her bachelor’s degree in nursing. She began her residency at the Providence VA Medical Center in fall 2020 with rotations in the intensive care unit, emergency room, and postoperative and medical surgical floors. Her long-term plans, however, are to pursue nursing education and become a college professor. 

Through lessons learned from her double major in nursing and gender and women’s studies and her experience as a Latina in a “sea of white” in nursing school, she committed herself to the cause of diversifying the nursing workforce. She currently tutors students in both of her majors at URI in a program designed to support students of color because she sees the importance of “having a mentor that kind of looks like you.” As a college professor, she hopes to “be a face of color at the college level.” 

Reflecting on how far she’s come since RINI first helped her sophomore self envision her future identity as a nurse, she commented, “It’s coming full circle now.”