Avery Eller is ready. She will be among the Augusta University College of Nursing students graduating on May 13.
She worked at Doctors Hospital during college to earn money, but she was not a nursing major at the time.
“It was just an obvious job to get because it was easy because I was going to be working with my dad,” she said. “Then I kind of got to see him in action l, and I think that definitely influenced my decision to change to nursing because I saw him taking care of his patients in real time. And I saw how much he cared for them.”
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Dad, Greg Eller, also did not start out aiming for a career in nursing growing up in Panama City, Fla.
“I did my first two years of college in engineering, and just decided I wasn’t in love with that field at that time, and kind of trying to find myself,” he said. “So, at that point, I get started working with UPS in the mornings, I was a supervisor for them for the last three years. And then got married and had our oldest daughter, and just decided that I needed to start looking at what I wanted to do to complete my degree.”
A 1992 Time Magazine article on jobs going into the next decade included healthcare as hot spots, especially for men. That led him to the Army for three years and a scholarship and acceptance at the University of Alabama, Huntsville to complete his degree in nursing. He was commissioned as an officer and spent 16 years in the nursing corps.
Two tours of duty at Fort Gordon were followed by relocation to Colorado, eventually returning to Augusta and the Joseph M. Still Burn Center.
Every step of the journey, Avery was watching him.
“Like when we were in Colorado, even when he was in the military, he was a military nurse. And then when he got out, he stuck with nursing,” she said. “So, I think probably seeing him be so committed to that through like over 20 years definitely played a part in me choosing that.”
Completing college and getting her degree in nursing, ready to begin work with her father at Doctors Hospital, made even more significant because it is happening during National Nurses Week, which is May 6 through May 12.
“It’s a lot of hard work that’s coming to fruition. So, for that to be on a week that specifically recognizes nurses, it definitely makes you feel really special,” she said.
“Obviously, it’s been a little bit surreal knowing that you’re having somebody following your footsteps,” said her father. “I think it became more evident like about a week ago, they had the nursing National Honor Society induction, and she was in that group that got selected. Then additionally, was also selected to the national honor society for the university and the overall undergrad class.”
The induction ceremony gave Avery a taste of what to expect when her name is called at Friday’s graduation.
“They were the first parents to start the cheering thing. They were the only ones in my group that stood up and cheered. So, I definitely think that they will be very loud whenever name gets called, but I’m very thankful for that as well,” she said.
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Augusta University graduations are spread over two days Thursday, May 12 for graduate students and Friday, May 13 for undergraduates.
The Thursday graduation and hooding ceremony for 653 graduate students is at the Bell Auditorium at 6 p.m.
On Friday, 711 undergraduates get their degrees. The ceremony for graduates from the College of Education, College of Science & Mathematics, Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences and the School of Computer & Cyber Sciences will begin at 10 a.m.
Graduations for the College of Nursing, College of Allied Health Sciences and Hull College of Business will begin at 2 p.m.
Both of those events are at Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
