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When we first spoke to Keli Presley (Ed ’23, Nurs ’25) in 2019, she was a first-year, first-generation student with plans to major in biology and go to medical school. For fun, Presley was competing in Survivor at UVA, a semester-long competition based on the reality TV show. She also worked as a caller for the student-staffed fundraising group Cavalier Connect.
When classes were paused due to COVID-19, Presley, a recipient of scholarship support, moved home to Sallisaw, Oklahoma, where she lived with her grandmother. She had just been accepted to the kinesiology program at the School of Education and Human Development and completed her first year remotely.
Presley’s return to Grounds was a time of exploring options for her future. Many kinesiology majors go on to careers in sports medicine. Presley worked with athletes on the Virginia Football and Women’s Basketball teams as a volunteer for the sports medicine department and assisted an athletic trainer for UVA’s youth sports summer camps.
These experiences caused her to question her fit for sports medicine. “So often we were stabilizing and transporting people,” she said. “I wanted to continue the care.” She had applied to postgraduate athletic training programs and to two nursing schools—at Johns Hopkins University and UVA.
Presley was working at Cavalier Connect when she learned she had been awarded a Conway Scholarship for the Clinical Nurse Leader master’s program at UVA’s School of Nursing. “I was sobbing at work, I couldn’t even get the words out,” she remembered. “I still get emotional thinking of calling my family and telling them—it was such a special moment.” The Conway Scholarship, created by Joanne and Bill Conway, supports those who transition to nursing from other careers.
“Had I not received financial aid, I wouldn’t be in nursing school right now.”
Presley appreciated the way the nursing school’s clinical rotations would expose her to different hospital settings. “I wanted to be able to change my mind,” she laughed. She enjoyed her emergency medicine rotation but found herself drawn to women’s care. She is now doing her practicum with obstetrics. “I’ve seen these settings before, but it’s nice to go back and be a part of the team,” she said. “I like getting to work with women, especially those who are in vulnerable situations.”
“I have definitely grown,” said Presley, reflecting on the past five years. “By my fourth year, I had learned how I study best. In grad school, I hit the ground running and have done really well in my program,” she said. “I’ve had to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and asking questions, especially in the clinical settings.”
Presley is now the lead manager of recruitment for Cavalier Connect and a member of the national sorority Omega Phi Beta. “I loved the goals of the organization. It is a group of very diverse women,” she said. “I’ve learned to find my voice and be a leader in these different spaces.”
Thinking back to 2019, Presley said, “It felt like all the odds were stacked against me; I was so scared that I wasn’t going to make it through. It’s hard to see that end as a first-year. I cannot say how grateful I am for Access UVA and the Conway Scholarship for making these opportunities possible so I could grow in these ways.”
Presley remained active in UVA’s Survivor club, but never competed again. Why? “I won the whole thing,” laughed Presley, “I didn’t need to do it again—I’m a legend now.”
