Macie Martin, Class of 2023
Macie Martin will graduate from USI in May of 2023 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health services with a minor in Human Resources.
Macie is a class leader of the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) that is sponsored through the Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP). Macie went through leadership training in preparation to become a CDSMP leader. She also co-taught two CDSMP courses with other students as a part of the independent study that she completed with Dr. Swateja Nimkar in Health Services.
"I really enjoyed being a CDSMP leader," said Macie. "I am thankful for the opportunity to learn how evidence-based programs help people living with chronic illness."
As an intern with the USI GWEP, Macie has undergone training to become a leader at the Minka House on campus. She currently works in Human Resources at the American Trailer Rental Group. She’s the president of Student for Gender Violence Awareness at USI which strives to eradicate sexual and domestic violence on campus. Macie has been a leader at Service Saturday events through USI such as the cleanup of Posey Humane Society and making mats for the homeless.
Administrator-in-Training (AIT) Success Story
When Rebecca Lucas was growing up in Elkhart, Indiana, she and her sister would often travel to Ohio to visit their grandmother. While they were in Ohio, their grandmother would take them to the nursing home to see their great-grandmother whom the girls called, “Grammy Donna.”
“I couldn’t wait to go there,” she recalled. “I would walk the halls as if everyone was a family member, stopping in just about every room before I was ready to leave. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had already found what I wanted to be when I grew up: a nursing home administrator.”
As a student at the University of Southern Indiana, Lucas started on a path to achieving her career goals, and the university's partnership with Trilogy Health Services helped her get a head start. In 2017, the same year she was finishing up her undergraduate degree in Health Services at USI, Lucas, who was also enrolled in USI's Master of Health Administration (MHA) 4+1 program, was selected as the first recipient of the Trilogy USI Administrator-in-Training (AIT) Residency Program scholarship, becoming the first student in Indiana to begin an AIT residency as an undergraduate student. After completing her AIT at Trilogy’s RiverOaks Health Campus in Princeton, Indiana, and before earning her MHA degree in Spring 2018, Lucas passed state and national nursing home examinations, which earned her additional notoriety as the first USI student to pass both licensure exams before graduation.
Lucas has fulfilled her childhood dream: she is currently employed as executive director at The Villages at Oak Ridge in Washington, Indiana.
Dr. Katie Ehlman, associate professor of gerontology at USI, said Lucas has blazed a trail for other students interested in gerontology and long-term care. “Our collaboration with Trilogy offers the opportunity for students to complete a 1,040-hour AIT residency under the guidance of a qualified nursing home administrator to fulfill requirements set by the Indiana State Department of Health,” said Ehlman. “Embedding the Trilogy USI AIT residency program into the curriculum closes the loop for USI College of Nursing and Health Professions to be able to guarantee to the community a very high caliber of student who not only meets the knowledge required for licensure, but who also promote culture change and quality of care for residents and staff.”
Learn more about AIT opportunities at USI.