Cameron Simmonds

Valedictorian wasn’t necessarily on Cameron Simmond’s radar as a high to ride out his successful graduation from UCOL Whanganui, but that’s exactly how he celebrated the end of his Bachelor of Nursing.

“Being asked if I would accept the honour of being valedictorian was a bit overwhelming as I don’t like public speaking,” Cameron explains. “Then I thought, I'd better take a breath, jump on the opportunity and do it for Mum.”

It was, after all, Cameron’s mum who suggested he study nursing in the first place.

“My older brother reckons he suggested it first, so that’s slightly contentious within the family,” he laughs.

Cameron grew up in Whanganui and has been a student at various points in his life, taking a range of papers across IT, teaching, maths, and Te Reo Māori.

“I just never really knew what I wanted to do, and so I was often working and studying papers here and there. While I can appreciate the knowledge and experience gained from those papers, I’m glad I eventually found my calling in Nursing.”

Discussing why he turned to nursing, Cameron describes working two jobs but identifying that neither had any realistic scope for him to progress.

“It was at this point that I had a family conversation about what I should do. I hadn’t studied in a few years by this point, but I knew I needed a change. I knew that I liked having lots of variety within my day, and so I needed a career that would provide that for me.”

“Nursing was something that I had honestly never considered, but the idea lodged itself in my head. Rather than dive right in, however, I told myself I would take a month to try to convince myself not to be a nurse. I went online and hunted down nursing horror stories, read about people’s varied experiences working as nurses and found myself undeterred.”

“Living in Palmy at the time, I made the decision to move home to Whanganui and live with family to help alleviate my living costs while I studied. I also liked the prospects of smaller class sizes here at UCOL Whanganui.”

“During the course of my nursing study, I really appreciated how close our class became. We would often have lunch together between classes, we'd post regularly in our group chat and support each other with studying for assignments and exams. I am very grateful to my classmates who made studying nursing more than just going to class and completing assessments. It truly felt like a team effort.”

“While I didn’t use UCOL’s Te Mana Tauira support services, I know lots of my classmates did and that they made a huge difference for their studies. They provide a great service for students who haven’t had a lot of experience with academic writing and really get them ready to submit assignments and everything.”

Cameron was offered a part-time job after completing his first placement in his first year of the degree at a rest home in Whanganui. “I was really pleased to be offered a role there as it provided me with great experience. I kept working there until my first placement in my final year, when I stepped back to put all my energy into my last year.”

This experience likely helped Cameron stand out from the crowd when he began searching for roles, as he was successful in securing full-time employment at Palmerston North Hospital.

“I applied through the ACE programme and had put down either Whanganui or Palmerston North regions as my preferred options. At the time, there were no roles in Whanganui, so I was really pleased to secure something in Palmy.”

Having begun in January, Cameron is working in the Medical Speciality Ward. “I’m really enjoying it so far, the people are great, and it’s got the variety I was looking for.”

For those thinking about taking the leap to study with UCOL Whanganui, he says, it’s worth it!

“If you’re keen, reach out to the UCOL team for a chat; they’ll definitely be able to point you in the right direction.”