Kara Leonard, 35, of Lexington Park was selected by her peers to be the student speaker at the nursing recognition ceremony that took place the afternoon of Jan. 19. Leonard is the mother of three children, ages 11, 9 and 7. She is married to a retired U.S. Marine. And she has already had success in two previous careers, first as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and later as a personal trainer. About two years ago, Leonard sensed that it was time for a change in her life, she said. She didn’t feel fulfilled in her work. She became convinced that nursing was the best new direction for her. She speaks passionately about the experience of training for this new career and about the camaraderie that nursing students build during that training.
During her years at CSM, Leonard’s family required attention and her classes required attention. Those two components alone provided plenty of stress. But to enter the field of nursing, Leonard said, adds a special pressure all its own. “You slowly start to understand the gravity of what you’re taking on. The weight of what you’re doing,” she said. “You realize ‘I need to be very good at this. I need to know what I’m doing.’ It’s a big responsibility.”
That pressure and time spent learning together forged uncommonly strong friendships between the nursing students, Leonard said, comparing it to the camaraderie found in the military. “The friends I made in nursing school? The bond is almost indescribable.”
The high caliber of the faculty at CSM makes the nursing program, Leonard said. “The faculty in this program are some of the best human beings I’ve ever met,” she said. Professor Rose Miller impacted Leonard and others in the program. “She just commands respect. We were all in awe of her,” Leonard said. The graduating nurses voted to have Miller as one of their faculty pinners in the nursing recognition ceremony.
Professor Morag Dahlstrom also made an impression. Leonard said Dahlstrom was tough and “incredible.” She was responsible for grading students on how well they performed certain skills under pressure. Leonard recalls Dahlstrom repeatedly encouraging her through this. “She would say over and over, ‘You’re better than what you think you are. You can do this.’ I don’t know if I’ve ever felt more championed by an instructor.”
After graduation, Leonard plans to work in the RN residency program in the trauma burn unit at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. “It’s an honor … to be in a position where you can effect change on someone else’s life,” Leonard said of her new career.
“I find my purpose in my service to others. CSM was the vehicle I needed to get there. It was a good experience. It was hard. It was a necessary experience. For that, I will be forever grateful.”