Rose Shelor: Nursing a natural fit
She’s experienced birth, death and eight-hour shifts as a nurse’s aide. For Rose Shelor, 17, a nursing career is a natural fit.
Nurses, she said, “implement what is talked about. They make things happen.”
For Shelor, East Carolina University was also a natural fit. “I loved the campus and thought everyone was very friendly,” she says. “When I saw the health campus I was very impressed. I hadn’t seen anything like that before.”
Shelor, of Cary, will be one of 20 incoming freshmen entering ECU in August as EC Scholars – the most prestigious academic scholarship program the university offers.
Her academic path differs from many of her peers because she has been home-schooled by her mom, a former elementary school teacher.
“She wanted us to learn to read well and be confident before we went to school,” she said. “It worked so well we decided to stay home the whole time.”
While she learned about different careers shadowing people in the workplace, her most transformative experience came at home. When her ill grandmother came to live with them, Shelor learned what she really valued.
“I had been thinking I would go into liberal arts, something Spanish- or English-related,” she remembered. “I got interested in medications and nursing and made a spreadsheet for her medications.”
Shelor was with her until the end.
She has also witnessed life’s beginnings. She saw a baby born and has volunteered at a hospital rehabilitation unit. She runs her own babysitting business.
Participating in Duke’s Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program, led by medical students, inspired her as well.
Shelor enjoys playing the piano and reading the classics – she loved “Les Misérables” – or poetry. She has her own blog called “Rose’s Yarn” about knitting, and dyes her own yarn. She once sheared alpacas with a friend. She gives her knitted baby caps to the hospital nursery.
As an EC Scholar, she’ll travel abroad and has her sights on Guatemala, where she can volunteer in a health clinic. As a Spanish speaker, she’ll study the language, too.
She’s already heading in that direction. “For the past three or four years I’ve volunteered at a crisis ministry store,” she said. “I’ve worked as a translator, using Spanish with people who can’t speak English. It was a neat experience for me to use it.”
Rose is the daughter of Clay and Pam Shelor.
-- Marion Blackburn
