A 30 student cohort will have most of their tuitions paid for as part of a Department of Health grant. The caveat, all students in the program must live in a rural part of New York or Pennsylvania and agree to work in these populations once they graduate.

Participants in the program will be studying in Binghamton University's brand new Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences building. If those walls could talk, they'd tell decades of stories about what was once one of the most successful shoe manufacturers in the world. 

Patti Reuther, a nurse and instructor at the college, knows just how important this time is for the medical profession, and how these students will be adding to the building's long history.

“In here, I call these the innovative instruction rooms. All the furniture that are in here are movable because we need to make sure we’re meeting the needs of future classes," said Reuther, executive director of the college's Innovative Simulation and Practice Center.

Those future classes are now meeting for the first time, and graduate students like Isaiah Buchanan are walking into this unique opportunity.

“It’s very easy to make assumptions about different populations, but once you immerse yourself in the culture of that population, you have a better insight into how that population works, what its quirks are and also how to navigate some of the pitfalls that someone who isn’t from that area could have,” said Buchanan.

Buchanan moved to the area a few years back, and now lives in a rural area himself. He was drawn to nursing based off of his natural passion of helping other people.

“It’s the idea that you can make an impact, not only on someone’s life, but the life of their family by helping them with their health and it’s kind of the gift that keeps on giving, because when you see people do better, you yourself get a source of pride and joy that you’ve done something to positively impact the lives of others," said Buchanan.

While upstate New York has several major hospitals, they’re not always easy to get to for those in rural settings. Buchanan hopes to meet those needs in his community before it reaches that point.

“It’s still a commute for a lot of families, and it puts a hardship on them, not only to have a family member in the hospital before COVID, but especially with COVID parameters, especially with limited visitations, so to have someone in the community that can help them before they can get to that point where they need to be hospitalized is the goal that we should all be looking out for,” said Buchanan.

Buchanan and his fellow students will graduate in the next two years.