2017 CSRA College Night Scholarship Leads Student to SRS
Friday, January 8th, 2021
As a high school student in 2017, little did Kayla McElmurray realize that winning a CSRA College Night scholarship would eventually lead to a job shadowing assignment at the Savannah River Site (SRS) just a few years later.
SRS management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) annually orga- nizes, manages and helps to sponsor CSRA College Night. Kayla recently spent two days observing and, at times, assisting SRNS nurses at the SRS Medical Department.
“I was at College Night with a church group and about to leave, when I suddenly heard my name an- nounced as a $1,000 scholarship winner,” said McElmurray. “And I thought ‘no way! No way they just called my name out of all these
people. This is crazy.’”
To date, over $300,000 in schol- arship funding has been offered
to those attending past College Nights. “The generosity of our scholarship sponsors and help from more than 100 volunteers are major reasons why this program is
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions Medical group annually accepts job shadowing students such as Kayla McElmurray from the University of South Carolina Aiken’s Nursing Program. McElmurray is shown taking the vital signs of Dr. Paul Cloessner, Laboratory Fellow, Savannah River National Laboratory
McElmurray has since used the scholarship to pursue a nursing degree at the University of South Carolina Aiken (USC Aiken) where she is now a senior.“The College Night scholarship was such a blessing my first year at USC Aiken,” she said. “It really made a difference.”
consistently successful each year for local students like Kayla,” said Gladys Moore, CSRA College Night Chairperson and SRNS employee.
Since 1993, more than 100,000 high school students, parents and educators from the greater Aiken- Augusta area have attended CSRA College Night at the James Brown Arena in Augusta, Ga. Though the event was cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, if need be, a virtual version may be considered for 2021.
In order to complete the nursing program at USC Aiken, McElmurray is currently participating in the university’s Community Health Clinicals program where students are required to spend 90-100 hours shadowing nursing practices used within different local medical organizations.
The goal of nursing clinicals is to add to the student’s newly learned skills in a hands-on learning envi- ronment within a variety of practices including women’s health, medical-surgical, pediatrics, psychiatric, community and occupational medicine.
SRNS has been hosting student nurses for years providing a unique opportunity to experience occupa- tional medicine at SRS medical facilities.
