尽管仍然还有几个月的课程要结束，然后才能赚钱bachelor of nursing学位，穆里尔·米勒（Muriel Miller）已经开始了家庭传统。她是七个孩子中的长子和一名第一代大学生，她领导着家庭的大学教育，激发了她的兄弟姐妹考虑学校和护理职业。

“It’s felt very good to help my little sister fill out applications, figure out FAFSA,” the University of Missouri–St. Louis student said. “That was a really good feeling to know that I inspired her, and my other brothers and sisters all want to go to college, which was something they weren’t even talking about before.”

事情进展顺利，即使拥有工商管理副学士学位的米勒（Miller）的母亲也已经开始考虑更多的学校。

“My mom has been talking herself out of going to college for forever,” Miller said. “Like, ‘No, I can’t do this.’ But now that she’s seen me do it, she’s like, ‘OK, yeah, I think I can do this.’”

Getting close to the finish line and inspiring her family throughout that process has been immensely affirming for Miller. Though she’s had her share of doubts and hurdles throughout her undergraduate experience, finding a love for nursing and for women’s health has carried her throughout.

An early experience with women’s health first got her interested in a medical career. At 14, Miller assisted her aunt through the early stages of labor, helping her in and out of the tub, talking to her through the day.

“Once she got to the hospital, I loved how everybody was surrounding her and how much of an empowerment it was for a woman,” Miller said. “Afterward, doing research I found out that also a lot of Black women die from giving birth, more than anybody else. It became a big thing of, ‘I want to be an OB/GYN’ because I want to empower women but also because, ‘I want Black women to have somebody to trust.’”

But when it came time to enroll, Miller found herself filled with doubts that she could really pursue medical school.

她从未见过有人经过学院wondered how she’d manage it and then go through all those years of medical school afterward and how she’d manage to pay for it all.

米勒说：“对于像我这样的人，一个可怜的黑人女孩来说，这是无法实现的。”“我只是从未见过。”

她决定改用护理学校。与她在诺曼底的家人亲近，College of Nursing计划和获得奖学金使UMSL成为Miller的理想选择。

“I came on tour, and it was a great experience,” she said. “It seemed like somewhere I could get along with people. I could make friends. I could stay on campus. But I could be at home if I needed to.”

在整个学校，她都做到了两者，她的大一新生都住在校园里，搬家大二，然后返回该地区住在该地区豪宅山公寓her third and fourth years. Though there’s benefits to both, Miller notes that living on campus and having a meal plan simplifies things such as getting to class.

这对她来说至关重要，因为米勒不仅遵循了护理计划的严谨性，而且一直在努力为她的教育付费。她很幸运能够从UMSL和密苏里州，FAFSA和The的奖学金和经济援助中受益North County Matching Scholarship, but that hasn’t covered everything.

She began working during her second semester, getting jobs the UMSLOffice of Residential Life and Housingand becoming a nursing mentor as well as a tutor. Her sophomore year, Miller worked at Dave & Buster’s and then became a student nurse tech on the cardiothoracic stepdown unit at巴恩斯 - 犹太医院.

“For a long time, I’ve been in survival mode,” Miller said. “You have no time to play. You have no time to think about it, just do, do, do, do, do.”

尽管遇到了困难，尽管她最初的梦想是成为一名医生，而不是护士，但米勒还是在护理学院找到了家。

“我爱上了它，”米勒说。“如果您是医生，您与患者没有相同的互动。我已经看到医生进来并向患者解释事情，然后护士是必须进一步解释或回答问题的护士。除家人外，护士是您的支持系统的人。我想，‘这实际上就是我想要的。我想在那个脆弱的时刻成为某人的右手。’”

Clinicals and her job at Barnes drove that feeling as did finding some unexpected areas of interest. Though Miller still loves women’s health, she surprised herself by discovering she enjoyed other areas of nursing as well.

她说：“如果他们是成年人或孩子，如果是心脏病患者，如果是创伤患者，那对我来说没关系。”“我喜欢在那里为任何人。”

With three job offers on the table, Miller’s next steps are still up in the air. But having gone through college and nursing school, she’s open to the possibilities and confident that whatever she wants to do, she can do it – whether that’s work or more school to become a nurse practitioner or midwife.

Or even medical school.

米勒说：“我就像，‘如果我愿意，我可以做到这一点。”“我不知道未来会怎样，但我肯定会在研究。我知道有一天我肯定想进一步教育。现在，我觉得一切都可以实现。我为自己感到非常自豪。”

短URL：https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/?p=91034