{"id":3951,"date":"2022-04-29T19:56:49","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T19:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=3951"},"modified":"2025-02-05T13:54:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T18:54:53","slug":"cynthia-brown-a-call-to-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2022\/04\/29\/cynthia-brown-a-call-to-serve\/","title":{"rendered":"Cynthia Brown: A Call to Serve"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column3951_d8885a-34 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\">\n<p>Cynthia Brown, RN, co-chairs the WilmU Alumni Association\u2019s New Castle Chapter in order to encourage her fellow&nbsp;graduates to pursue opportunities, no matter their age or level of uncertainty. She knows from experience how interesting and unexpected that pursuit can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The year after she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at WilmU in 2014, she took on the role she\u2019s described as her true calling: school nurse at the Charter&nbsp;School of New Castle. \u201cSchool nursing is a specialty practice,\u201d&nbsp;says Brown, \u201cand it is not just my job, it is my ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She admits that working in a middle school is not something she\u2019d ever considered before her bachelor\u2019s degree. In fact, nursing is her second career. She\u2019d started as a bank teller for PSFS. \u201cI enjoyed my work,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m a people person.\u201d For 13 years, she worked her way up to the customer service and credit card departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During those years, she also trained and served as a combat medic with the U.S. Army Reserve, and eventually completed its Licensed Practical Nursing program. \u201cI always knew I wanted to be a nurse,\u201d says Brown, who left banking for a long-term care facility, where she spent the next 12 years advocating for the needs of her elderly patients. \u201cBut I have to say, when I walked into work that first day, knowing that I had been entrusted with peoples\u2019 lives, it was surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brown\u2019s WilmU B.S.N. led her to steady home health aide work, but, she notes, \u201cyou have your plans, and the Lord has his plans.\u201d Friends who worked at the Charter School of New Castle arranged an interview for a school nursing job there. \u201cI stumbled across what I was meant to do,\u201d she says. \u201cEvery day, when I walk through that door, I know I will touch someone\u2019s life, or they will touch mine. There\u2019s a need for nurses in every school. We don\u2019t just sit in our offices and hand out Band-Aids and aspirin. We\u2019re mental health providers; we\u2019re moms, we do laundry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As with her entry into school nursing, Brown hadn\u2019t anticipated playing a part in alumni relations. \u201cAs a grad, I didn\u2019t even know about the association,\u201d she says. At the invitation of a friend and former chapter co-chair, the late Pamela Lucas, she began attending its meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The service to others that has guided her through&nbsp;banking, military service, and nursing led Brown to become&nbsp;co-chair herself, along with&nbsp;Adrianne Roberts, in 2021. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s a community, connection, the opportunity to give back to the University that helped me along my journey,\u201d she says, \u201cand hopefully to sow opportunity to the other students coming through after me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>By David Bernard<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cynthia Brown, RN, co-chairs the WilmU Alumni Association\u2019s New Castle Chapter in order to encourage her fellow&nbsp;graduates to pursue opportunities, no matter their age or&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[145,135],"tags":[8,383],"class_list":["post-3951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-magazine","tag-college-of-nursing-and-health-sciences","tag-magazine-spring-2022"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":145,"label":"ALUMNI NEWS"},{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":8,"label":"College of Nursing and Health Sciences"},{"value":383,"label":"Magazine Spring 2022"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Spring22_Cynthia-480x480.jpg",480,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rachel Marchione","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rachel\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":145,"name":"ALUMNI NEWS","slug":"alumni-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":702,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":113,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":145,"category_count":113,"category_description":"","cat_name":"ALUMNI NEWS","category_nicename":"alumni-news","category_parent":0},{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":8,"name":"College of Nursing and Health Sciences","slug":"college-of-nursing-and-health-sciences","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":565,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":110,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":383,"name":"Magazine Spring 2022","slug":"magazine-spring-2022","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":940,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":22,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3951"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14290,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3951\/revisions\/14290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}