Work-study jobs at hospitals led this high school senior toward a nursing career

Chalkbeat journalists ask the people we come across in our work to tell us about their education stories and how learning shaped who they are today. Learn more about this series, and read other installments, here.

Cameron Moore is a senior at Providence Cristo Rey High School, a unique Catholic school on the West side built around student work-study experiences. Each student is paired with a partner employer every year and splits time between classes and a job, which helps pay tuition. We talked with Cameron at the school’s Draft Day event to start the school year.

I call this school a blessing in disguise. I came from Guion Creek Middle School in Pike Township and I was going to go to Pike High School like my sister did.

I think like a lot of our seniors I was like, “I don’t know about this school. I kind of don’t want to go there.” But then I went and experienced the program and it really grew on me.

I worked at Community East and Eskenazi hospitals. I’ve been working with patients in both places. I would just try to help them. Sometimes I’d help them find where they need to go or anything they need. I realized it’s not always easy when you’re in the hospital. You notice how nervous people are. They’re scared. By helping them you can give them a chance to calm down or sometimes just assess the situation. Even if what you do for them is small, you really are helping them.

After my first experience working in a hospital, I decided I wanted to be a nurse. I want to be more connected with patients. So working there really helped me out. My companies were very open to having me talk to nurses and shadow nurses. So they really helped me just get on the right track.

For college I am hoping to go either to the University of Indianapolis or IUPUI. They both have very good nursing programs.