Jordan Allen is happy he made the move from the Flagstaff campus to NAU–Yuma where he’s studying to become a nurse.
Later this year, NAU–Yuma Nursing student Jordan Allen will move for what he counts to be the 15th time. Allen’s father is a nurse practitioner in the US Navy, and his postings took the family to bases around the United States and Italy. Allen clearly remembers Googling for information on the day in 2012 when he got the news that they were moving to Yuma, Arizona. The top hit was a video. “The video was the Circle K right over here,” he says, pointing to the main road visible from Yuma’s hilltop campus. “There was a huge sandstorm coming in, and there’s this deputy yelling, ‘Everybody get inside! Everyone inside now!’ They go and they get a bar on the door. The door is just shaking like crazy. And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. Where am I moving to?’”
Over the next few years, Allen learned to take the occasional dust storm in stride, but when it was time to think about college, he decided to move once again and headed to Flagstaff. While helping him move in, Allen’s dad surprised him with a comment. “My dad, he was moving me up to NAU and he goes, ‘I used to live here, you know.’” That’s when Allen found out his grandfather was a history professor at NAU in the 1970s.
Over the next two years, Allen finished his general education requirements and was accepted into the Nursing program…in Yuma. At first, he had mixed feelings about going back to Yuma. He enjoyed Flagstaff and the energy on campus. But he was excited to begin his nursing training, so he packed up and headed home. And from the day his nursing classes began, he hasn’t regretted a single moment.
“In Flagstaff, the main campus is huge,” says Allen. “I’ll go into a building and only use that building once the entire time I’m there or not know anybody who’s walking down the street. That’s not a bad thing; that’s just how it is. In Yuma, it’s a smaller group, so it’s a lot more personal. I know most of the teachers here. Even if I’m not in their classes or their different majors, I see them walk around. So you kind of know them a little bit. You’ll say hello.”
Allen says he has been especially impressed with the support he and the other nursing students get from Assistant Clinical Professor Jason Bradley, the campus program coordinator. “Professor Bradley works to get us everything we need. He puts in the work for us. If you got a problem, he’ll try to fix it.”
Allen says he also appreciates the variety of on-the-job experiences that will help him decide what area of nursing he wants to focus on.
“My clinical started week six,” he says. “We go to the renal health hospital tower, the operating room, the pre-op, and post-op, the infusion center. I like that each semester you’re going to all these different places. I like all the extra opportunities.”
Allen is on track to graduate in December 2023. After that, he’s considering earning a nurse practitioner degree like his father. In the meantime, he’s looking forward to experiencing all the possibilities the NAU–Yuma Nursing program has to offer.
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