By Camryn Burke
Although I have only been a student here at Ferrum College for a little over a year, I feel like I have been a part of this community since fall of 2017. Nick Helton, a senior men’s basketball captain and I have been together since our senior year of high school. Following graduation, Helton decided to continue his basketball career at Ferrum. So, for a total of four years, I have been coming to Ferrum visiting, watching games, making new friends, and falling in love with the school.
(Burke wearing an Indiana University sweatshirt and looking forward to joining Indiana University in the fall for optometry. Photo courtesy of Camryn Burke.)
At the end of my senior year of high school, I decided to take a different route and continue my education at a local community college, where I utilized that year to decide where I wanted to continue my education as well as my ultimate career goal. After completing my first year in community college, I transferred to Radford University.
At this point, I had decided to work towards obtaining a seat in an optometry school program. I had known, since I was little, I wanted to pursue a career in healthcare. As I got older, however, I realized I had to come to a specific field of medicine. I had not considered optometry until my first year of undergraduate, when the opportunity to volunteer and shadow was presented to me. My decision to pursue this career was reinforced through the various opportunities available to me during my undergraduate career.
While at Radford, my younger sister sophomore Cassidy Burke decided to continue volleyball and academics as a Ferrum Panther. After Cassidy began school here, I was always joking that I would transfer so that she could enjoy having her older sister around again. As you can imagine, she was “thrilled” with the idea.
Although the idea of transferring was initially a joke, I found myself regretting my decision not to apply to Ferrum. Then, within that time, Ferrum announced the advising and agreement opportunities geared specifically towards pre-optometry students. I immediately contacted Dr. Katie Goff and travelled back and forth to meet her and held onto the hope that transfering would work out.
Now, here I am writing this at the Panther Grounds coffee shop, approaching graduation with a double major in biology and pre-professional health sciences with a pre-med emphasis and a chemistry minor. After my time at Ferrum ends, I will be attending School of Optometry at Indiana University.
During my time here at Ferrum, I have been a part of the Minds-N-Medicine club, Love Your Melon, Rotaract Club, Delta Phi Epsilon sorority, The National Society of Leadership and Success, and the women’s swim team. I have even worked on campus and served as a practicum for the human anatomy and physiology classes.
Although I have not been an enrolled student here very long, I know my short time here was crucial to my success and acceptance into a wonderful program. I could not have found a better place to complete my undergraduate academic career at. Without this school, community, and most importantly the people, I might have finished undergrad with a lot of regret. I will graduate here feeling fulfilled and excited for this new journey I am about to embark on!