Becoming a nurse requires more than classes and textbooks. It also takes more than 750 hours of hands-on practice — listening to heartbeats, easing fears and building trust — before a student in MSU’s College of Nursing can earn the title of Spartan nurse.
The clinical skills training makes nursing school exciting, engaging and rewarding, but it also adds extra expenses not covered through tuition, including the cost of a background check and a SafeMedicate License; hospital scrubs and shoes; a flu shot; screenings, and more.
Every MSU nursing student also needs a skills bag—kits filled with essential tools like a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, gait belts and foley trays. All necessary items that help aspiring nurses translate what they have learned through their course work, to providing care for patients.
But at $200 per bag, this cost can pose a significant challenge to already financially burdened students.
Thanks to donor support, many future Spartan nurses had that barrier lifted this year.
“Nursing school, aside from tuition, is very expensive,” said Eleanor Jones, a 2025 BSN graduate, adding that the skills bags are one of the heftier costs, but also of immeasurable value.
“Educationally, the skills bags aid in personalized hands-on experience for future nurses, and sentimentally, they illustrate your growth and journey through the program when you use and empty that last kit,” she said. “I want to thank every donor. You are funding the future generation of nurses, and it has an impact that means more than you know.”
For Angela ‘Angie’ Strawn, College of Nursing Alumni Board president, making a gift towards the Nursing Skills Bag Fund on Give Green Day was a perfect way to celebrate her 60th year as an alum.
“I discovered nursing as my life’s purpose while a student at MSU,” she said. “For that I will be forever grateful. I hope that the recipients of these gifts feel the support of alumni and know that others are investing in their futures so they can one day proudly say they, too are Spartan nurses!”
Angie was one of the 135 donors who collectively gave more than $13,600 to help provide skills bags for nursing students. One generous donor kick started the effort by agreeing to match the purchase of five skills bags on last Spring’s record-breaking Give Green Day. That support parlayed into funding for 10 bags before the sun even fully rose on the day of giving.
“When I see that so many other nursing alumni also supported the CrowdPower skills bag fund, I realize that MSU is making a difference!” Angie said. “It is with joy and gratitude that we as alumni can unite in supporting future generations of nurses. We are changing the world because Spartans will!”
Donors also wrote notes of encouragement, placed in the skills bags the students received. Many noted the rewards of an MSU nursing education and encouraged students to persevere, take full advantage of everything MSU offers, but to prioritize self-care as well.
MSU alum Tom Minter expressed his wish for a rewarding life, while remembering his late sister Maureen Minter Hamlin who was a 1981 nursing graduate. “She was a nurse for over 34 years” he wrote. “She loved her work and was very good at it. My sincere hope is that you enjoy MSU, work hard, play hard. Love being a nurse and have a wonderful career. And are happy!”
LEARN MORE about support for the College of Nursing by contacting Director of Development and Alumni Relations Anthonie Burke at burkean3@msu.edu or calling (248) 798-4227 or visit MSU CrowdPower.