College of Nursing graduate Alisha Saile said she came to Wayne State University determined to find her passion. Thanks to her faculty mentors, coursework and clinical experiences, she found it and followed it to secure a job as a labor and delivery nurse before she even crossed the Commencement stage.

Saile, who competed in synchronized skating for Team USA throughout her time in Wayne State's BSN program, said one of her greatest missions as a nurse is to be a compassionate advocate for mothers in labor and postpartum care. She’s now prepared to pursue that mission, having recently accepted a position with Ascension St. John Hospital on their labor and delivery floor.

“My Wayne State nursing education put me in a great position to work closely with other providers to advocate and provide compassionate care for laboring and postpartum moms,” Saile said.

Experiences in the classroom and clinical settings throughout her BSN program, combined with mentorship from faculty members including Clinical Instructor Nicole Wheeler, DNP, CNM, helped Saile focus her career ambitions.

In the Community Focused Nursing Practice course, Saile trained at HUDA Clinic, which provides free primary care to uninsured and underinsured residents in Northwest Detroit. For her clinical immersion course, she practiced at Covenant Community Care, a federally qualified health center serving patients throughout metro Detroit. Both experiences gave Saile the opportunity to provide preventive care and health education to new moms, including lactation consultation. These experiences helped fuel her drive to pursue a graduate degree in midwifery.

“I was able to teach them how to take better care of themselves and improve their lifestyle habits by managing medications and implementing other strategies,” she said. “Then I benefit by seeing their progress when they come back to the clinic having put what I taught them into practice, and we can track their improvement.”  

Seizing opportunities is nothing new for Saile. A lifelong figure skater, she balanced the rigorous demands of the BSN program with an equally demanding schedule as a synchronized figure skater, competing throughout the world and winning second place in the U.S. Figure Skating National Championship in 2023.

In her junior year at WSU, Saile helped create new opportunities for herself and fellow students when she co-founded the College of Nursing’s Alpha Phi Chapter of Alpha Tau Delta, a professional nursing fraternity that connects students with tutoring, mentorship and networking opportunities. For Saile, it’s one way she hopes to have a lasting impact on future generations of Nursing Warriors.

“We wanted to create a place for students to go if they were feeling alone, needed advice, or wanted extra help finding a job or job shadowing opportunities,” she explained. “Nursing school can be hard, especially if you’re doing it alone. We want nursing students to know they have a place, and an organization, that’s just for them.”