Nursing student to travel to South Africa
Plans to hold dance to raise funds for trip

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

Lisa Ann Carroll

GRANTS — In 28 years, Lisa Ann Carroll's life has taken many paths. She's a mother to three children. She's a wife to her husband Duane. She loves the medical profession. She's close to getting her bachelor degree from University of New Mexico-Gallup, so she can become a registered nurse and she is about ready to take off on a trip to South Africa to learn more about nursing.

Lively, blond-headed, hazel eyed, Carroll, who was born in Albuquerque, but raised in Grants, does not hold back when she talks. She was graduated from Grants High School with the Class of 1994. "From there I went to University of New Mexico for a year, got married, got divorced, got re-married to my high school sweetheart," Carroll said. She also had three children along the way, became a paramedic, fell in love with the medical profession and began studying to become a nurse at the University of New Mexico-Gallup Campus. She earned an associate degree in May 2004 and said she has about one and one-half years of study left before she has her bachelor degree.

She lives in a camp-trailer in Gallup while attending classes three days a week, then comes home to Cibola County for a few days. Duane, a paramedic, is where Carroll got her first dance with the medical profession and fell in love with it. "It is a profession where you can get out of school, make plenty of money and still help people," Carroll said.

When Carroll is not attending classes she and Duane like to hunt elk, camp out, fish and teach the children about the outdoors.

It was during her ongoing college career that Carroll pulled a 3.8 grade point average for 24 semester hours of college work and that was enough to impress one of her instructors, who nominated Carroll to the International Scholar Laureate Program. The program coordinators, located in Vienna, Va., reviewed Carroll's paperwork, liked what they saw and offered her a spot on the 2005 South Africa Delegation on Nursing tour.

"There's only 80 in the whole United States going on the trip," Carroll said.

The International Scholar Laureate Programs are sponsored by the Envision Institute, an organization which focuses on experimental education. Envision Institute is based on the idea that students should learn by hands-on immersion into the field of study. Carroll will be traveling to Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg to learn about South African health care and the University of Cape Town nursing curriculum. She will be visiting rural health centers and she will see first-hand how, with limited infrastructure and supplies, nurses in South Africa bring health care to communities which are impoverished.

"It will give me an opportunity to learn how nursing is done in another country, but the main thing they will be touching on is the Aids epidemic," Carroll said.

She'll be leaving May 23, for Atlanta, Ga., where Carroll will join the other 79 nursing students for the trip to South Africa. About June 28, Carroll will return with a wealth of information and experiences from the nursing trip of a lifetime.

The trip, including tuition, air fare and all will be about $4,400. Carroll said she raised all but $2,800 of the funds. With a family and three kids to feed, extra money is a luxury; so Carroll said she is turning to the people and businesses of Cibola County to help her raise the rest of the money. "We're going to have a dance on Feb. 18, at the Cow Palace in Grants, to help raise money," Carroll said. "The dance will be from 8 p.m. until midnight and you pay at the door. It will be a family country and western band playing the music."

She said donations can also be sent directly to her at Lisa Ann Carroll, P.O. Box 3178, Milan, N.M., 87021. "Also, if anyone has any questions they can call me at 290-1311," Carroll said.