时间和地点的礼物

It doesn’t take long to feel the excitement 弗朗西斯·杨中校 conveys serving as the new head of 全球赌博十大网站陆军后备军官训练队. Prior to sitting down to sitting down for a morning office meeting, Young enthusiastically explained how a few J参加后备役军官训练军团 high school students had recently revisited their interest in Carson-Newman and moved the University to the top of their college lists. 

兴奋是真实的. 毕竟, 年轻曾经是他们的地方, 她知道他们在C-N能找到的第一手好处.

A Dandridge native and Jefferson County High School graduate, Young knew she wanted to go to college somewhere that was close to home and 家庭 and a place that would nurture her Christian faith. 卡森-纽曼符合所有条件.

That along with her guidance counselor pointing her to explore J参加后备役军官训练军团 her senior year, 一切似乎都井然有序.

“我觉得这里就是我的家，”杨说. “回想起来，我很感激. 你知道, 有时候我们会为自己制定计划, 但神知道他为我们所安排的计划.”

杨在C-N获得了四年的陆军后备军官训练队奖学金 护理 主要. “I knew I wanted to do a career that would be taking care of people,” said Young. “那是我的心被召唤去的地方.”

杨说她在C-N的发现很特别. 护理学教授, 小社区, 家庭环境真的能让人成功,”她说。, 感谢她的护理学教授总是花时间. “They’re also genuinely invested in your outcome and in you as a person. Dr. Casalenuovo was our 参加后备役军官训练军团 mentor and he definitely went out of his way.”

It was the combination of caring and academic rigor that Young still remembers fondly.

“这种坚韧会挑战你, and it makes you grow and do things you didn’t think were possible,”她说。. “但是你有老师站在你这边, 即使他们会逼你, 他们会站在你这边，帮你冲过终点线.”

But it wasn’t until three years after her 2007 commissioning from Carson-Newman that Young fully realized how much her professors truly were by her side.

他驻扎在乔治亚州的斯图尔特堡, 分娩护士:作为分娩护士的, Young received a call from home that her younger brother 雷蒙德 was in ICU and not doing well.

“I called my commander and they let me leave work,” she recalled vividly. She and her husband Major James Young, a 2005 C-N alum, quickly hit the road back to East Tennessee.

“我的头部空间不太好，无法驾驶, 但(詹姆斯)能开六个小时的车回来,杨停顿了一下说, “他最终通过了.雷蒙德15岁.

With memories rushing back, Young recalled images she continues to cling to.

“A couple of weeks later, we’re standing there in the funeral home, and I look over and I see Dr. Casalenuovo. 还有另外两位护理学教授. Angie Wood和我认为Dr. 卡夫也在场. They had come with the freshman 参加后备役军官训练军团 students…to my brother’s funeral. 我甚至没有和他们接触过. I didn’t tell them; they just heard about it somehow,”她说。. “I will never, ever forget just looking over and seeing them…it was so powerful. They had remembered and remembered who I was, and took time out of their day to come.

“毕竟 those hugs, I felt truly loved and cared for,杨说. “I would say that moment instilled in my mind like ‘I’ve got to get back to Carson-Newman one way or another in my career and give back to the community that gave a lot to me.’ I wanted to serve the cadets like I was served and try to leave a legacy of making them feel like I was made to feel when I was here.”

刚刚过去的这个夏天, 在几块碎片相继就位之后, Young’s proclamation came to fruition as she returned to Mossy Creek to lead the Eagle Battalion. 在她的军事生涯中取得了很大成就, 获得荣誉, 奖项和荣誉, 杨期待着这新的人生篇章. 她对学员们也寄予厚望.

“My hope is that the cadets that go through our program realize the gift that Carson-Newman gives them by having a Christian worldview and the love and support they have from their faculty and the staff here,杨说. “I hope they realize just how invested everyone is here for their success.”

如果她的C-N回归还不够甜蜜, in September Young was able to hold a military promotion ceremony surrounded by friends, 家庭, 的同事们, 以前的教师和教授. The opportunity to be commissioned on the same stage that she was first commissioned as an officer from C-N 参加后备役军官训练军团, 再加上她第一次收到父亲的敬礼, 雷蒙德, 退休的美国人.S. 陆军中士，简直好得令人难以置信. It was a time of both celebration and reflection for the newly minted lieutenant colonel. 

“I struggle to find the words to describe how powerful and special that was for me,”她说。. “回到一切开始的地方真是太特别了. 我真是太幸运了，太激动了. 时间是一份礼物，我渐渐懂得珍惜这一点.”