TWO ‘STELLAR CADETS’
“We have an exceptional class of cadets currently enrolled in Army ROTC at UMHB,” said Lieutenant Colonel Daniel L. Shalchi, departmental chair and professor of military science leadership. “These young leaders are at the top of their class on campus and nationally within the Department of the Army, and we are proud of them and what their future holds in the next chapter of their military careers.”
Though Jami and Bernadette’s stories are quite different, both found themselves at UMHB with full-ride Department of Army scholarships and as the only two nursing students in the ROTC program commissioning this year.
Jami, who is from Red Oak, Texas, was a junior in high school when she decided she wanted to go into the military. Even though she applied to the Navy, Air Force and Army, she ultimately chose the Army because of the professional and military education options offered by the U.S. Army and chose UMHB because it was close to home.
She initially thought of becoming a doctor, but her sister-in-law, who is a nurse, persuaded her to look into nursing.
“I want to care for people and be able to help them when they’re sick,” Jami said. “The more I looked into it, I realized that being a nurse is closer to what I feel called to do. It just felt like that was my purpose.”
Bernadette is originally from Chicago but now lives in Copperas Cove. When she entered high school, she thought of going into engineering, but an instructor in her school’s allied health program talked her into trying out one of her classes, and Bernadette fell in love with nursing.
“She kind of opened the medical world up to me, and I thought, ‘Oh, this is cool!’ and I just kept going on that path,” Bernadette said. She got her CNA certification in high school and volunteered at a hospital for three years until she turned 18 and was hired as a CNA. Two years later, she decided to join the Army and later contracted as a reservist, where she has served for the last eight years. A request to transfer to a medical unit so she could pursue a nursing degree brought her to Central Texas, and when she learned that UMHB had an ROTC program as well, she was excited to join.
