The Diamond Jubilee of Cadet Nurses in Arizona: Stories of Service – Florence

July 1, 2018, marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, an innovation for its time that addressed an acute healthcare delivery crisis during World War II. This presentation draws from the voices of those who participated in the program. Participants will have the opportunity to view and discuss Cadet Nurses’ accounts of their experiences. Through discussion of these experiences, participants will learn about the meaning of Cadet Nurses’ service during and after World War II. Participants will also learn about interviewing Cadet Nurses they may know and resources for the preparation and archiving of these stories for posterity.

Elsie Szecsy is an Academic Professional Emeritus at ASU, where she investigated problems of importance in the Southwest U.S.-northern Mexico region and nationally that are related to educational access and excellence. Now retired, her focus is on research of Cadet Nurses. Szecsy earned an Ed.D. in Educational Administration at Teachers College, Columbia University, and was previously a middle and high school foreign language teacher on Long Island in New York, as well as administrator of a regional distance learning program there. She curates the uscadetnurse.org website and continues to collect Cadet Nurses’ stories, and in 2016 launched a non-profit organization to encourage leadership in recognizing Cadet Nurses’ service to our country and their profession.