Taking Temperatures and Birthing Babies: Middle School Students Learn About Nursing

March 20, 2023 • By Dan Addison, danaddison@virginia.edu Dan Addison, danaddison@virginia.edu

March 20, 2023
Middle school students learning how to use a stethoscope

Students in the Starr Hill Pathways program, which offers Charlottesville-area students an opportunity to explore what college would be like, learn about nursing and medical studies offered at the University of Virginia. (Photo by Dan Addison, UVA Communications)

About 40 local middle school students spent Friday learning about the University of Virginia’s School of Nursing as part of a program that introduces area teens to college environments.

The middle school students, part of the UVA Equity Center’s Starr Hill Pathways program, spent the day with about 20 nursing students and faculty members to get an idea of what it would be like to study nursing in college.

The program is designed for Charlottesville-area seventh- and eighth-graders, including many who would be first-generation college students, to learn more about paths to college and what they could study once enrolled.

Here are some photos of the event.

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Nursing students Julia Jennings and Aleesha Mays working with middle school students
UVA third-year nursing students Julia Jennings, center, and Aleesha Mays show Pathways students how to take a blood pressure reading in the simulation lab. (Photo by Dan Addison, UVA Communications)
Middle school students practicing taking one another’s temperatures
Middle school students practiced taking one another’s temperatures, just as nurses do when completing physical assessments of patients. (Photo by Dan Addison, UVA Communications)
Middle school students learn about the labor-and-delivery simulator
The students learned about more complicated nursing duties, like how do deliver a baby using a mechanized birthing simulator, worn in this image by a patient actor. (Photo by Dan Addison, UVA Communications)
Nursing students presenting with Kenny the therapy dog
UVA nursing student presenter Nakayla Figgins and other nursing students take a moment to greet the “facility dog,” Ella, who visited for the afternoon, along with Kenny the therapy dog. (Photo by Dan Addison, UVA Communications)
UVA President Jim Ryan and School of Nursing Dean Marianne Baernholdt particpating in the conversation with the nursing and middle school students
UVA President Jim Ryan and School of Nursing Dean Marianne Baernholdt share a lighthearted moment as nursing students talk shop about their profession. (Photo by Dan Addison, UVA Communications)
Nursing students presenting to a classroom of middle school students
UVA nursing students tell the visiting middle school students about their own paths to nursing, as Kenny the therapy dog naps. (Photo by Dan Addison, UVA Communications)
Nursing student Donna Nkurunziza
UVA nursing student Donna Nkurunziza, in scrubs, was part of a panel of presenters to the 40 Starr Hill Pathways participants. (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)
Group photo of President Ryan, Dean Baernholdt, and the nursing students presenting
President Ryan and Dean Baernholdt pose with UVA nursing presenters Nakayla Figgins, Abby Garcia, Campbell Irby, Deepa Patel, Donna Nkurunziza and Julienne Butler. (Photo by Dan Addison, UVA Communications)

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Christine Phelan Kueter

School of Nursing

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April 18, 2025

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