By Susan Loyacano

On the Salina campus of KU School of Nursing, there are 30 first-year nursing students. The population of Salina is about 47,000. In the fall of 2025, three women arrived on campus – all from the metropolitan area of Chicago, population 2.75 million. In their first year of nursing school, Gina DeMarco, Caleigh Ryle and Alyssa Milarski have forged a friendship that they hope will get them through the most challenging school days – and beyond.

Of all the places they could have gone for training, these future nurses ended up in the same class – on the same campus. Coming from the ‘Paris on the Prairie’ to land in a small city on the Kansas plains…these three have bonded over their hometown and are now pretty much inseparable.

Windy City Women

Friends since eighth grade, DeMarco and Ryle grew up just a few blocks apart on Chicago’s northside. It just so happened that they both decided to attend college at The University of Kansas in Lawrence. Two years later they each decided to apply to the nursing program at KU School of Nursing.

“We both just wanted to be nurses, so we spent those two years getting our prerequisites,” DeMarco said. “We both put ‘no preference’ on our applications…and we ended up in Salina. We’ve been together the whole time!”

Meanwhile, Milarski went to high school in Crystal Lake, a suburb of Chicago. When it was time to plan for college, she heard a lot of great things about the KU nursing program.

“I committed to KU without ever touring the school, and my first time there was orientation!” Milarski said.

When it was time to begin nursing school, she also marked ‘no preference’ on the application and landed in Salina. One of her roommates in Lawrence was friends with DeMarco, so they had actually met before.

When school started, it was natural that the Chicago threesome began to hang out – bonding over what it’s like to live far from home.

“Most students here are from near Salina or Kansas City, so the three of us were in the same boat,” Ryle said. “We are without family and our usual support system, so we can lean on each other.”

Other current students in Salina travel long distances as well, including the Pacific Northwest, Los Angeles, Houston, Honolulu, San Diego, China, Vietnam and Germany. The Kansas City-based School of Nursing recruiter, Kyle McGee, is also from Chicago and connects with students from all over the world during the prospective student events at the Lawrence campus.

Embraced by the city

All three agree that the community in Salina has been very welcoming.

“I like Salina – it’s bigger than I thought it would be,” DeMarco said. “I thought it was going to be a little ghost town. There’s a lot to do here and it’s a very close-knit community where everyone knows each other and it’s a good way to make connections.”

Ryle added, “It kind of reminds me a little bit of Lawrence, especially the downtown area. The community is just very supportive – whenever you meet someone out in the city, they are very curious about our experiences here.”

She added that there are a lot of good health clinics in the area and instructors are available to help navigate the opportunities for students to gain experience.

Terri VanSlyke is the student recruiter at the School of Nursing in Salina, and before the semester began she met with DeMarco, Ryle and Milarski.

“They all mentioned a reason they were drawn to Salina’s campus was because they believed the variety of cases they would experience in a rural and smaller setting would set them up for success for the future,” VanSlyke said. “The opportunity to be exposed to diverse clinical experiences in rural hospitals is invaluable.”

 VanSlyke added that even if the three choose to practice in a large city in the future, the rural experience will give them a better understanding of what resources rural hospitals, clinics and communities have available.

For Milarski, living in Salina means being closer to her boyfriend since high school, who attends Kansas State University in Manhattan.

“It’s only about an hour away and I can visit for the weekend. I would rather be here than in Illinois!”

An unexpected benefit to living in Salina is that the small airport has three daily departures, and one is to Chicago.

“There is a flight every morning at 9 a.m., so if we ever need to go home for something, we can fly right out to O’Hare, which is about five minutes from home,” DeMarco said.

Having friends from the same city makes road trips home during longer breaks a lot more convenient, and certainly safer, they said.

“It gives our parents peace of mind to know that we’re together on those road trips,” said Ryle, whose boyfriend also is there for the drives home.

Strength in numbers

Study sessions are collaborative, each sharing how they memorized the material and comparing their techniques.

“I like to review the content first to make sure I understand it,” DeMarco said. “Then we get together and talk it out to see how much of the information I can recall without looking back at the notes.”

On a heavy exam week, the group will study together on campus four to five hours a day. They also sign up for small group tutoring, led by students who have previously taken the course they are studying for.

Ryle said having two people to study with is motivational.

“You might not feel like studying, but you have to! Studying in a group means you aren’t alone – and that makes it better.”

It helps to have your study group nearby, even when you are at home. At the beginning of every semester, nursing students take a medication calculation exam – converting medications from different units of measurement.

“I know we will be studying for that over the break,” Milarski said.

All agree that preparing for a career full of life-or-death situations is scary.

“Becoming a nurse can be nerve-wracking,” Ryle admitted. “But we haven’t gone through it all yet, so we don’t know what to expect yet – and I know every situation is different.”

The road ahead

It’s too soon to predict what their future nursing careers will look like, but the plan for each is to earn their bachelor’s degrees followed by licensure as an RN.. They concur that only after working in their field for a while will they know if earning their master’s degree is something that will help them pursue a new dream.

DeMarco feels drawn to geriatric nursing, and Milarski wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps to become a neonatal ICU nurse. Ryle is still weighing her options.

“I was leaning toward the emergency room or ICU,” Ryle said. “But there are a lot of clinicals still to experience, so I am keeping an open mind.”

Milarski added, “I feel like this career is so rewarding. Even though it can be challenging always having so much to do and never having time to yourself…you get to do so much good for so many people – and as a student you don’t even know it yet. And that’s my favorite thing about nursing school.”