Service and care runs in the family for teen admitted to College of Nursing

For the Hill family, Pirate nursing is a family business. Kayleigh Hill is getting a very early start as part of the next generation as one of the youngest students ever admitted to East Carolina University’s College of Nursing.

Kayleigh, now 17, said she’s known since middle school that she wanted to pursue a career in health care but didn’t know the exact path. Learning from her parents about their jobs helped refine her plan.

“They helped me plan it out and that’s when we decided on early college because it could help me achieve what I wanted faster,” Kayleigh said.

At 17, Kayleigh Hill becomes one of the youngest students ever admitted to the College of Nursing.

ECU is home to the Innovation Early College High School, a solutions-based partnership with Pitt County Schools that “admits students who are first-generation college applicants at-risk of dropping out or seeking accelerated studies.”

Kayleigh applied to the program in eighth grade, one of two students from her school to apply, and was accepted. In her freshman year, she was limited to one college class per semester, but in her senior year, she’s taking four college classes in addition to her required high school load.

“Starting my sophomore year, I was taking three to four classes per semester and also summer classes at Pitt (Community College), that helped me accumulate over 70 credits,” Kayleigh said.

Kayleigh’s high school experience is pretty close to that of her friends in other county schools —prom, clubs, school buses and the like — but there are differences. No school sports for the 200 or so students across the four grades. But she is involved with club volleyball, the county’s Health Science Academy, and math club, and she’s president of the student body along with holding down a part-time job.

“It’s been a great experience. The actual college classes have helped me prepare for nursing school. I get to work with professors, meet them, and the early college does a great job allowing us to still experience high school and join clubs,” Kayleigh said. “It’s allowed me to really focus on college without the other distractions that a college student may have. You get the best of both worlds.”

Pirate Nursing as a Family Tradition

Daniel Hill, Kayleigh’s dad, served in the Army as a combat medic, which gave Kayleigh and her siblings an opportunity to grow up in Germany and Georgia before returning to North Carolina.

While in Germany, Daniel was put in charge of a behavioral health clinic and found he was good at it and liked it. Transitioning to nursing school at ECU was an easy decision and where he met Katie, Kayleigh’s stepmother. They graduated together in 2018 and enrolled in graduate family nurse practitioner programs and then certificate programs that qualified him as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Katie Hill will finish soon.

In 2024, the Hills established Greener Hill Psychiatric, to provide mental well-being services to Pitt County and eastern North Carolina.

Kayleigh plans to pursue graduate school as soon as possible after graduation and join her family’s practice. The Hills are tight knit, and she wants to stay close to them.

“My family’s practice will allow me to do that,” Kayleigh said.

Her parents want Kayleigh to share the same positive experience they had during their time at ECU.

“ECU nursing was the foundation for my wife and I,” Daniel said. “She probably could have gotten into most nursing schools in the state, but we wanted her to go here. Nobody is pushing out the volume, with the NCLEX pass rate, like the College of Nursing. We owe a lot to ECU; we’re thankful for our experience and want that for her, too.”

High School as a Launchpad

Casey Hyatt is principal of the Innovation Early College High School, which she describes as a cooperative, innovative high school model that targets first-generation college students, economically disadvantaged and at-risk students, or those who need accelerated studies.

Hyatt said Kayleigh falls into the latter category.

Students at IECHS take four years of AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), a program that helps students develop organizational skills, study habits and test taking strategies. Most graduate with up to 60 hours of college credit from ECU for free.

“A lot of our students are accepted in honors colleges, but for her to already be accepted into a specific college on the university campus is exemplary and a testament to her hard work,” Hyatt said.

Kayleigh fits the culture of IECHS to a tee, Hyatt said.

“They want the opportunity and have the intrinsic motivation to go after those opportunities and goals,” Hyatt said. “It’s our job to make sure that then we help them get there.”

Hyatt believes Kayleigh’s determination and dependability will suit her well once she joins the College of Nursing. Hyatt asked her at the last minute to represent the school as SGA president at a monthly school board meeting. Kayleigh didn’t hesitate.

“I was like, ‘Hey, Kayleigh, can you go do this? And by the way, it’s tonight.’ She said, ‘Absolutely, where do I need to go? What do I need to do?’” Hyatt remembered. “That says a lot to me that she’s willing to do whatever is asked of her — for the good for the school, good for the community.”

In the fall, Kayleigh will take that dedication from east campus to west, to begin the next leg of her journey toward being a beacon of hope and care for her community as a Pirate nurse.