Stronger Together
Westminster’s SNOW Club provides a space for future nurses to connect, serve, and lead
by Audrey Maynard (’03)
Nursing, by necessity, is a profession built on camaraderie and connection. As the bridge between patients and physicians, nurses have a direct—often intense—window into the most vulnerable moments in their patients’ lives.
For more than 75 years, Westminster’s nursing program has worked to prepare students for the realities of a career as a nurse. And the Student Nurses of Westminster (SNOW) Club has provided a supportive place for them to share knowledge, celebrate victories, and lean on each other when times are tough.
When Cristina Monge and Cindy Thomas, associate professors of nursing, became SNOW’s faculty advisors in early 2023, involvement in the club had begun to flag. Students who had been active were eager to serve, but they lacked the guidance needed to shape the club into a resource that could truly benefit their peers. Cristina and Cindy’s first course of action was to establish defined elective leadership positions within SNOW.
Cleverly deemed the SNOW Board, the club’s leadership—composed of a president, vice president, event coordinator, social-media manager, and pre-nursing advocate—is responsible for building community within the nursing program, mentoring future nursing students, organizing events, and strengthening nursing’s ties to the greater Westminster student body.
“Our goal with SNOW is to continue providing a space for students to socialize and network,” Cristina says, “but we also want to ensure our student leaders receive opportunities to actually practice their leadership skills and have something meaningful to put on their résumé.”
SNOW’s president Tatum Behn (’25) first got involved with the club in an effort to build her support system as she acclimated to the rigor of the nursing program’s curriculum. She initially assumed the role of pre-nursing advocate, which opened her eyes to the power she and her peers had to effect change within the community. Together they plan annual service opportunities, including flu-shot clinics, health screenings, blood drives, and volunteer nights at local homeless shelters.
“Having come from a big school in Colorado, I didn’t really know what to expect, and SNOW became my support system when I first started Westminster,” she says. “Not only is it a space for students to support other students, but it also provides us with an opportunity to get involved, give back, and learn from the community in which we live.”
Chris Backman (’25), SNOW’s vice president, is a non-traditional student who enrolled at Westminster after serving three deployments with the United States Marine Corps in the Middle East. Nursing school was never on his radar, but after helping flight nurses treat wounded soldiers in the shock trauma unit and becoming eligible to receive funds through the GI Bill, Chris’s path led him to Westminster.
“As a sergeant in the Marine Corps, I was in charge of a lot of people, and I had to look out for their well-being. But when I got out, I felt like I was back at the bottom,” he says. “SNOW has given me back that sense of purpose where I’m motivating young nurses and pushing them to keep going even when they’re scared.”
Chris is now leveraging his involvement with SNOW to connect Westminster students to service opportunities at the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City, ensuring unhoused vets receive resources, like wheelchairs, they would otherwise struggle to acquire.
“I’m pretty passionate about this issue, so it’s neat when classmates sign up to get involved after I’ve given a speech about the ways they can make a difference through SNOW,” Chris says.
For Cristina, SNOW has provided a unique opportunity to learn about her students—their motivations, challenges, and aspirations—outside of what she could glean in the classroom. It’s this deeper sense of connection and personal investment that she believes differentiates Westminster’s nursing program from others.
“We have an incredible legacy of shaping graduates into the best versions of themselves,” Cristina says. “If I can help to achieve this end through a program like SNOW, then I want to put my all into it. Every day I see the passion that students have, and I want them to know that they’re being guided by somebody who reciprocates that exact same feeling.”
About the Westminster Review
The Westminster Review is Westminster University’s bi-annual alumni magazine that is distributed to alumni and community members. Each issue aims to keep alumni updated on campus current events and highlights the accomplishments of current students, professors, and Westminster alum.
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