Over the past year, we have asked our students to tell us why they chose Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston. One common answer – across undergraduate and graduate students – is that they aspire to become nurse leaders. In this issue of Cizik Nursing, you will learn about a few of the ways we are preparing our students to achieve excellence.

The first step is inspiring young people to become nurses. We are working with school districts, health care systems, and other clinical partners to introduce high schoolers to health care careers. Students leave these pilot programs with hands-on experience and several health care certifications to get them started.

Once admitted to the school, our students get to know their classmates and faculty. Two future nurses tell us how much they value in-person learning and the unmatched opportunities for clinical rotations in the Texas Medical Center. Rich experiences such as these are part of why our Bachelor of Science in Nursing program continues to be ranked No. 1 in Texas by U.S. News & World Report.

We also pride ourselves on offering financial support to help our students fulfill their dreams. Three of the 31 Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students who have benefitted from Health Resources and Services Administration grants in the past year share their experiences working with underserved populations in rural and urban settings. They are studying on the Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner tracks of our BSN to DNP program. In addition, a first-generation college student talks about a philanthropically supported scholarship that enables her to pursue her Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing.

We also hear from alumni who demonstrate what it is to be a nurse leader. One leads in gerontological nursing and education. The other frequently precepts DNP students and is a hero in the eyes of her daughter, who is following in her footsteps.

Finally, it is hard to overstate the phenomenal achievements this year in our Department of Research. Thanks to the foresight and generosity of the Jane and Robert Cizik family, UTHealth Houston has recently established the Cizik Nursing Research Institute to provide unparalleled resources to support nurse scientists in growing meaningful programs of research that will benefit patients and communities for decades to come. This unprecedented move comes on the heels of our faculty receiving millions of additional dollars in funding from the National Institutes of Health to expand research into elder mistreatment, auricular point acupressure for pain management, and the affects of firearm injuries on youth, to name a few.

We could not teach and mentor the next generation of nurse leaders without stellar staff and faculty who are themselves leaders in their fields. I am honored and humbled to continue to work with just such a team, and I look forward to another year of innovations and advancements in nursing education, practice, and discovery at Cizik School of Nursing.