With Job Secured, ’26 Nursing Graduate Ready to Improve Lives

When Eli Morrison walked across the stage at East Stroudsburg University's commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 9, the moment was the culmination of a five-year journey to a career he didn't originally plan on but couldn't imagine a future without.

Morrison, who will begin working as an intensive care unit nurse this summer for the Geisinger Health System after completing a bachelor's degree in nursing, said he always knew he wanted to work in a field where people who were often at their worst needed help the most.

Morrison initially majored in physical education but began to consider ESU's nursing program after his freshman year, thanks in large part to the impact he saw his parents have on others.

"My mom has been a nurse, and my dad is a recreational therapist inside a hospital, so we've always had that medical background in our lives," said Morrison, from Bloomsburg, Pa.

Especially influential for Morrison was his mother's experiences as an intensive care unit nurse herself, which led to his decision to take his first job out of college in that same role. To make the job even more special for the two, Morrison will be working on the same floor of the same Geisinger hospital his mother worked at.

"My mom has truly shown me what it means to be a nurse and if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have even given a thought to nursing," he said.

After talking it over with friends in the program, Morrison officially made the switch to nursing. Since the program requires students to complete a full four years of coursework, he would have to spend a fifth year at ESU. Instead of seeing it as a setback, Morrison used it as an opportunity.

He took advantage of the program's clinical experiences and network of regional healthcare partners by completing an externship with Geisinger.

He learned hands-on healthcare skills in the university's state-of-the-art Dale and Frances Hughes Foundation Community Health Education and Simulation Center in the DeNike Center for Human Services. Opened in 2023, the center features manikins that mimic human body functions as well as operating room space, a nursing station, and a control room where faculty can monitor simulation scenarios.

He also absorbed as much knowledge as he could from the faculty, who each brought their own unique real-world experiences to the classroom.

Morrison said it was a big difference from what friends in other college nursing programs were experiencing, largely due to how quickly students are immersed in the field.

"Here, your hands-on experience starts right away," he said. "My sophomore year, I was in the hospital seeing everything up close so you can see the reality of it and whether you really want to pursue it, which I knew I did."

Before even stepping foot in a hospital, Morrison's courses laid the foundation for everything he needed to know.

"We learned the basic skills of nursing and practiced everything else we needed to be successful," he said.

As he prepares to begin his next chapter in a few weeks, Morrison hopes his patient care leaves the same impact his parents' did.

"You see a patient come into a hospital and they're down. They're not at their best," he said. "My goal is that, by the time they leave, I've had a positive impact on them that hopefully made them feel better."

Learn more about ESU's nursing program.