Freshman footsteps | Nursing student keeps busy

Slightly out of her element, Nursing freshman Kerry McLaughlin sits at the photo lab front desk in the basement of the Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall, scanning photo and video equipment for fellow students. And although she is just a few weeks into her new position, McLaughlin jokes freely with the art students and graduate assistants who pass her as she mans the lab.

Already, her short stint at the photo lab — plus a little additional coaxing by a handful of the Fine Arts students — has inspired McLaughlin to try out an introductory photography class in one of her upcoming semesters.

But it’s not as though she’s looking for time to fill.

The freshman, who admits her mom occasionally calls her out for “over-scheduling” herself, has certainly kept herself busy so far this semester.

From her Nursing requirements to a Spanish class that she really loves, McLaughlin has even found time to keep up with her Newman Center crew through weekly Dollar Dinners and serve as captain of her intramural volleyball team.

Right now McLaughlin’s main foe is Chemistry — a class more challenging than any of her others. She described her midterm last Friday as a battle; she and several others left the room practically in tears.

“You know when you have one of those weeks — when everything just seems to pile up — it was just one of those weeks,” she said.

McLaughlin described the possibility of piled-up stress as an all-too-common struggle on campus that she hopes to avoid.

“I hear the horror stories,” she laughed, “and I’m just trying to hide from those monsters in the closet right now.”

But McLaughlin remedied the stress of non-stop studying and other commitments this past weekend with a mini girls’ night in with a number of her freshmen friends, replete with nail polish and chick flicks.

She and a number of other girls — from both Nursing and the College — camped out in a Kings Court College House room for a night of unapologetic pampering before returning to the everyday grind of classes and studying.

But despite her worries about the Chemistry midterm and those tough weeks, McLaughlin never seems to discard her sunny disposition.

Even before being named House Council representative for her hall, for example, McLaughlin’s friends dubbed her “mother of the floor” because of her proclivity for providing sound advice and Ibuprofen deliveries to sick hallmates.

McLaughlin seems to have found her strongest support in her roommate, Nursing freshman Eryn Battey, whom McLaughlin describes as a perfect complement for balancing out the room and her Nursing study group.

Among the few times the small group met prior to the first midterm and an upcoming study date covering oxidation reduction, McLaughlin said “it’s helpful to bounce ideas off of one another — but it’s also just a great good to study and hang out with.”

The class for which they are studying, “Introduction to Nursing,” only helps alleviate the pains of having to take Chemistry.

“For me, the class only makes me want to start taking more nursing classes,” she laughed. “That, and seeing the nurses walk by in scrubs — it’s just like dangling a little carrot in front of us.”

As McLaughlin battles through one more midterm-heavy week, she has her sights set on fall break, which includes family visits and “maybe a trip into Center City” — a weekend she’s looking forward to as a little breather before getting back to chemistry, her post at the photo lab and her final few weeks of chasing that carrot.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.