{"id":1182,"date":"2025-02-18T15:46:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T15:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/?p=1182"},"modified":"2025-02-18T15:46:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T15:46:01","slug":"alumna-sara-milne-capitalized-on-her-westconn-experiences-to-travel-as-a-navy-nurse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/2025\/02\/18\/alumna-sara-milne-capitalized-on-her-westconn-experiences-to-travel-as-a-navy-nurse\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna Sara Milne capitalized on her WestConn experiences to travel as a Navy Nurse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sara

Sara Milne<\/p><\/div>\n

New Fairfield resident Sara Milne graduated early from high school, started taking classes at Western Connecticut State University<\/a> and joined the women\u2019s Rugby Club on campus. Since she was only 17 at the time, she earned the nickname \u201cHigh School\u201d from her teammates. Sixteen years after her WestConn graduation, she is far removed from high school, and has continued her trend of getting ahead of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always knew I would go to WestConn because my older sister had gone there for a Marketing degree,\u201d Milne said. \u201cInitially, I was an undeclared student and took a lot of my General Education requirements before deciding to focus on Nursing with a minor in Psychology.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her senior year at WestConn, Milne worked as a Patient Care Technician at Danbury Hospital. This not only gave her hands-on experience, but also provided her with tuition reimbursement. She had lived in Connecticut her entire life and knew she wanted to travel and see more of the world. At a Nursing Career Day, she visited with a recruiter from the U.S. Navy, and was excited to learn that she would have the possibility to experience many different coasts as a Navy nurse.<\/p>\n

Following her 2009 graduation, Milne received her medical clearance from the Navy, and once her passing score on the NCLEX exam came back, the Navy officially accepted her into the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. Soon, the traveling she coveted began.<\/p>\n

\"Sara

Sara Milne<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI took officer basic training for five weeks in Newport, Rhode Island,\u201d Milne recalled. \u201cThen I was stationed at Walter Read Military Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. After two years there, I was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

While at Bethesda, Milne worked as a charge nurse in a general medical-surgical unit. In Yokosuka, she gained experience in labor & delivery and the emergency department. After she fulfilled her five years of service commitment, she left the Navy and backpacked through Europe before returning to her roots in Connecticut. \u201cI worked in the ED at Stamford Hospital for about a year,\u201d she said. \u201cI took a travel nurse position in New Haven, then worked in the ER at Greenwich Hospital and the cardiac and vascular unit at Bridgeport Hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the past three years, Milne has worked for Premise Health, which offers on-site occupational health and wellness services at several area business, including at Boehringer Ingelheim, where she works as a contractor. Milne also recently was featured in an article in Today\u2019s Nurse<\/a>, after they reached out to her on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

Looking back, Milne said she\u2019s glad she got her degree at WestConn. \u201cOur clinical rotations were at many different hospitals, which gave us a wide range of options and provided a lot of hands-on learning,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a group, our NCLEX test results were great, and that resulted in immediately receiving a job offer after graduating, and also helped when I applied to graduate school for my master\u2019s degree. Everyone along the way said, \u2018WestConn is a very rigorous program,\u2019 and they were right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milne continued, \u201cI tell anyone who asks me, including my stepdaughter, that absolutely they should go to WestConn. It\u2019s a great university \u2014 especially the Nursing program \u2014 and it\u2019s right in our backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Western Connecticut State University changes lives by providing all students with a high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals, scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Fairfield resident Sara Milne graduated early from high school, started taking classes at Western Connecticut State University and joined the women\u2019s Rugby Club on campus. Since she was only 17 at the time, she earned the nickname \u201cHigh School\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":1185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}