EXCITED ABOUT A CAREER IN NURSING

EC Scholar Jacqueline Curtis

Hometown: Willow Spring, North Carolina

High School: Home-schooled

Intended Major: Nursing

“I really enjoy helping and caring for people, and nursing will allow me to do that constantly.”

Jacqueline “Jackie” Renee Curtis said East Carolina University’s distinguished College of Nursing was the reason she included ECU on her original list of potential colleges. But the 16-year-old from Willow Spring said the Pirates she interacted with during Scholars Weekend and Honors Preview Day sealed the deal.

“Everyone I met, students and faculty alike, was friendly, outgoing and eager to help,” she said.

Curtis is one of 20 freshmen who will enter ECU in August as EC Scholars – participants in the university’s most prestigious undergraduate academic scholarship program.

Although her particular scholarship offer comes with membership in ECU’s Early Assurance Program in Nursing, guaranteeing her entry into the College of Nursing, Curtis said she’s equally excited about other opportunities she sees down the road.

“I’m still excited about attending nursing school at ECU,” she said, “but I’ve also realized that the close, tight-knit student body present in the Honors College – and especially in the EC Scholars program – will enable me to grow personally as well as academically.”

Being an EC Scholar gives Curtis opportunities she never even dreamed of, she said. “I never imagined that I would be able to work alongside some of the best professors and students in the country, to study abroad, or to begin to make – years before graduating college – such a real and meaningful difference for people around me,” she said.

Curtis can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a nurse.

“I have been interested in nursing all my life,” she said. “I would go to the library and check out books on nurses when I was four or five. I really enjoy helping and caring for people, and nursing will allow me to do that constantly.

“The Early Assurance Program gives me an incredible opportunity to pursue graduate studies in nursing,” Curtis added, “and it will help me to reach even greater heights in my quest to be the best nurse I can be.”

Curtis looks forward to sharing some adventure – and bonding time – with fellow classmates through summer activities organized by the Honors College for the incoming class. Those plans include a group cleanup project in a Raleigh park, sailing, zip lining and whitewater rafting.

Also topping her summer to-do list: spending lots of time with family and participating in the Christian Youth Theater’s summer production in Garner.

In addition to theater, Curtis’s hobbies include singing, playing the piano and speaking in American Sign Language. “I would love to use ASL while I’m at ECU,” she said. “Something I’m looking into is volunteering as an interpreter at the hospital.”

Curtis, the daughter of David and Beth Curtis, was home-schooled throughout her entire elementary and secondary education.