CU Nursing - Fall/Winter 2019 - 18

G R A D U AT I O N

From Guatemala
to Dark World of
Sex-Trafficking,
Experiences Ignite
Grad's Community
Nursing Goal

By Debra Melani

fter working with a medical team in the
secluded villages of Guatemala, Rebecca
Harmon finally listened to her mother.
Seeing the sick, poverty-stricken people in
such dire need of health care, she made the
decision to follow in her mom's footsteps
and become a nurse.

"My mom's a nurse, and she always told me: You need to
go to nursing school. You should be in the medical field,"
Harmon said. "But of course, being my mom, I never listened
to her."

INTERPRETER STINT FUELS NURSING CAREER GOAL
Unsure of her direction after high school, Harmon began
working with an organization that deployed medical teams
to foreign countries. Having moved with her parents back
to their native Mexico for the duration of her elementary
school years, Harmon was fluent in Spanish.
So she completed some interpreter training and joined a trip.
"I went to Guatemala for three months and did interpreting
for the doctors," she said. "And I really fell in love with it.
I loved being a provider for people who are underserved."

CU College of Nursing | Fall/Winter 2019

Rebecca
and her
mother,
Laura,
celebrate
during
Rebecca's
induction
into the
nursing
program
in 2017.

When she returned, she began her education, entering
CU Nursing through the Integrated Nursing Pathway
program. "It is such a well-known program, and they
really focus on diversity and offering more of an opportunity for diverse students compared to other programs."

SEX-TRAFFICKING EXPERIENCE
CONFIRMS NURSING CALL
The nurturing spirit her mother must have seen came
through again, when a good friend of Harmon's fulfilled
a long-time dream of opening a girls' home for sex-trafficking victims in Denver. Despite facing the demands
of a nursing program, Harmon worked part-time in the
home for girls ages 12 to 18.
"I was called a direct care provider, so I was with these

CU Nursing - Fall/Winter 2019

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