TCNJ

26 The College of New Jersey Magazine MigHty dreaMs, FaB Futures 26 The College of New Jersey Magazine He's aN asPiriNg Nurse WHO taugHt HiMselF JaPaNese When Quincy James was just 5 years old, he took on the role of caretaker for his dad, who had been disabled in a car accident. "Nursing just seems a natural fit," he says. He created MENtoring Nurses, a community of male nursing majors on campus. But there's an edge to this softie: He's a big fan of alt metal music, and he taught himself Japanese after reading about a shortage of nurses in Japan. He's interested in travel nursing, and his first destination will be the U.S. Naval Hospital in Guam as part of the Navy Nurse Corps. " rOtc really PusHed Me iN diFFereNt directiONs." Leah Lavender is about to become a commissioned signal officer in the U.S. Army. She'll be stationed in Hawaii as a platoon leader and in charge of planning mission communications. That's a long way from who she was four years ago when she was lukewarm about going to college at all. "I was excited about decorating my dorm," she says. "That was it." But soon, college opened doors she hadn't anticipated. And, almost to her own surprise, she dove into an array of them — from "being in the suck" (military lingo for a challenging situation) in ROTC field trainings to painstakingly analyzing the portraits of emperors on Roman coins for mentored research. "I've developed a very strange resume while here," says Lavender. ROTC, which she joined on her first day of college when she saw the group tabling at an event, has been her main anchor. "ROTC pushed me in different directions," she says. "Once you start to build yourself and your identity, you start to want to explore more." At first self-conscious about being a female in a male-dominated space, Lavender looked to a few upperclass female cadets as role models. She built her confidence, took charge, and ultimately rose to the ROTC title of company commander. Now she sees her younger self in the women coming up through ROTC and knows how to support them. "I'm excited to start my career and just take care of my soldiers."

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