For the past two years, Jonathan Green ’18, Morgan Edmunds and Kayla Berrios have been working toward their Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees at USC Upstate. They are part of the program’s first cohort of doctoral students and will be the first to graduate this December.
The fully online program has allowed Edmunds and Berrios, close friends and colleagues, to take classes around their work schedules at USC Beaufort, where they are nursing instructors. The two bonded with Green via a shared group text, in which they have checked in with each other regularly and shared progress on their research projects.
“It’s just been nice to have that small group of us to really cheer each other on through it,” Edmunds says.
Green, a nurse practitioner at Spartanburg Day School, has enjoyed both the convenience of online classes and access to campus when he needs it. But what really drew him to Upstate’s DNP program was its focus on public and community health.
“My career goal wasn’t to necessarily be a nursing executive, my goal was to be with the patient,” he says. “I wanted to be able to take care of the patient and grow in the role of a clinician.”
Upstate’s program, he says, allowed him to do just that.
At Spartanburg Day, Green established the first school-based clinic in the Upstate, serving not just students but also teachers and staff. He provides routine testing, vaccines, labs and telehealth visits.
Green also is passionate about helping those who are poor or homeless and is a volunteer nurse practitioner with the St. Luke’s Free Medical Clinic in downtown Spartanburg.
“As nurses, our roots, our foundation, stem from caring for those in a vulnerable population,” he says.
Edmunds and Berrios discovered Upstate’s DNP program through their former department chair. Though they were initially hesitant about being part of something brand-new, they were ready to take the next step in their teaching careers.
“I knew that I wanted to stay in academia long term,” Edmunds says. “And in order to do that and get promotions and have more of a leadership role, I knew I would need the doctorate.”
Both women are also busy moms of young children and have second jobs besides teaching – Edmunds at a nursing education company and Berrios at a local hospital.
“The main thing for me was the flexibility, in terms of being able to plug in my coursework where I had opportunities,” Berrios says.
Pursuing their degrees together was an added bonus, since it allowed the two to support each other on their journey. But they also found plenty of encouragement within the program from the faculty and their committee chairs.
“I feel it’s been so much of a collaboration,” Edmunds says.
When graduation day arrives, it will not only be a professionally significant moment for the three students, but also a personally meaningful one.
Throughout Green’s nursing career, his grandma’s dream of seeing him get his doctorate has been a source of inspiration, even after her death during the COVID pandemic. Green’s mother, too, has always encouraged him to keep going with his education.
Both Edmunds and Berrios are proud to be setting an example for their children – “being able to tell my kids, this is mommy’s passion, and I have done everything I can to make that a reality,” Edmunds explains.
Earning a DNP may have completed one major goal for the students, but they have others. Edmunds and Berrios are applying for tenure-track positions at USC Beaufort, eager to continue preparing nursing students to deliver high-quality patient care. Both would also like to further develop their doctoral research projects.
Green is working to remove health care barriers for those in need that he identified in his research. His coursework at Upstate also has provided him with new techniques and strategies he can use to improve his in-school clinic.
And though the three are the first graduates of the DNP program, they look forward to seeing many others follow. Says Berrios, “I’m proud to have been a part of starting the program and it’ll be interesting to see how it grows.”