excitement..

Hi all! My name is Kelly Hayes and I am currently in the graduate nursing program to become a Family Health Nurse Practitioner. I am excited about our upcoming immersion trip to D.C.! I feel lucky to have this opportunity to learn and better understand the homeless population. I will fill you in about myself..

I grew up in a small southern Minnesota town of 20,000. I graduated from the UW-Madison School of Nursing in 2007 and worked for two years as a RN in a Coronary Care Unit at Gundersen Lutheran hospital in La Crosse, WI. I recently moved to the twin cities area and am now working at the University of Minnesota Medical Center in an Intermediate Care Unit.

In January of 2007 I traveled to Maseno, Kenya for a medical missions trip. I spent a month there working with patients in the hospital, doing outreach clinics with people who had HIV/AIDS, and working with an orphan feeding program and clinic. This was a life-changing experience as you can imagine and I am forever changed because of it. Since this experience I realized I wanted to pursue further education in hopes of becoming a nurse practitioner and to work with people of lower socioeconomic standing. I truly have a passion for these people, but have minimal experience. I hope to gain knowledge about what these homeless women of D.C. are experiencing. I want to fully embrace this experience and take every opportunity to grow as a person!