Category: Alumni

Looking to make an impact in the lives of others? Then health sciences may be for you! We interviewed a recent SC4 grad to hear about her and her family’s journey and impact in nursing.

Kyra Sutton graduated from the SC4 Registered Nursing Program in May 2024 and now works at Henry Ford Macomb in the surgical trauma ICU. Kyra’s grandmother, Suzanne Hill, also graduated from SC4 and worked in nursing administration at Henry Ford Macomb, the same hospital Kyra now works for.

Growing up, Kyra heard stories about nursing from her grandma and looked up to her dedication to her work. Suzanne was always busy, but her family was very important to her. In fact, she made Krya’s first pair of scrubs when she started working as an aid.

Kyra discovered her interest in nursing while working on a research project in high school on health care. From there, she went on to study at SC4 and was accepted into the RN program.

She completed her clinicals at McLaren Macomb, Henry Ford McComb and McLaren Lapeer. While working as an intern, she found that she was most passionate about the Intensive Care Unit. She enjoys how involved she can be with individual patients in this area, which fits her detail-oriented personality.  

“I like to really get to know people’s backstory…In the ICU, you need to know everything about a patient.” She later said, “There’s something about patient care, talking with patients and being a hand to hold that’s fulfilling.”

Kyra shared more about her time at SC4, saying that it’s a challenging program but that it prepared her for her work as a nurse.

“All my fundamentals and what I learned go back to what I was taught at SC4. I really think they do an amazing job. Their program is really difficult but for a reason….The professors are very thorough, which may have seemed difficult at the time, but I learned so much.”

Transitioning from the classroom to a nursing job can be difficult for students, but Kyra explained that her instructors helped prepare her. She specifically mentioned her clinical instructor for her last semester, Danyel Bullock, helped prepare her for this transition.

“It was towards the end, so she expected a lot out of us, but she also did a really good job of making us feel more independent. I think that’s where I gained more of my confidence.”

She went on to say how impactful her clinical group was to her.

“If you ask anyone that goes through nursing school, your clinical group is so important. You have rough days, and they pick you up and vice versa…I hope in my job I get to have an experience like this with my work family.”  

She concluded by saying:

“I’d recommend to anyone if they are going to do nursing to go to SC4. It is difficult, time-consuming and very high-stress…but in the long run, I learned so much about myself and watched myself grow from being a scared nursing student at the start of my career to being someone capable of taking care of multiple patients and thinking for myself and being able to take a test with less anxiety going into it. I think in the time that you’re doing it, you don’t realize how much you’re growing…It’s totally worth it in the long run.”

If you’re interested in learning more about degrees in health sciences at SC4, visit https://sc4.edu/programs/health-human-services/.