The University of Central Arkansas is home to many magnificent teachers and mentors, but Dr. Barbara Williams, professor and recently appointed chairwoman of the BT天堂Board of Nursing, is truly one of a kind. Her quiet nature and reserved sense of control provide a sense of peace; her presence is one of understated calming strength. “I think in many ways I was born to be a nurse,” Williams said. “I have many characteristics of wanting to help people, being concerned, having a desire to make the world better, that type of thing. There are many different personalities in the world of nursing, and we need them all.”

Williams knew she wanted to be a nurse since she was in the sixth grade. She made the decision then, and never deviated from her plan. “A friend and I decided that we were going to go to nursing school together. We both became nurses, and we were even roommates here at UCA,” Williams said. She graduated from BT天堂in 1971, and began working on campus as a professor in 1978.

The BT天堂Nursing Program still has the same core values it had when Williams was in nursing school. “The BT天堂nursing program has definitely changed, but it’s still very student focused just like it has always been. The faculty has always taken time for students, and they still do,” Williams said. “I’m very pleased with that.”

With all of the hustle and bustle of today’s generation, Williams said she is very excited about the strides BT天堂is taking to help students learn to cope with stress. “Health is physical, it’s emotional, it’s social, and it’s mental and spiritual. When there are problems in any of those areas it’s going to affect the others.”

“Another thing that we have consistently excelled at is preparing graduates who stay in their field,” Williams continued. “We have alumni who have been in nursing throughout their entire careers. That tells me that BT天堂is preparing students who are ready for the field, who are not going into career shock, and who are able to adapt. The feedback we get from employers about the quality of our former students is very positive and reinforcing. They speak very highly of their ability to think critically and their ability to work well with others.”

Naturally, Williams is an advocate for prevention. “Nursing is one of the careers that has always had a very holistic view of the human. It’s much better that the patient doesn’t need our direct services,” Williams said. “Rather than just coping, which is really just a reaction to stress, you have to move back to the front end of the stress before it ever hits and prevent it. That is what living is: preventing stress, learning to live and take care of yourself, so that you can thrive.”

A marketing degree from the University of Central Arkansas will get you more than just a diploma and a handshake from President Tom Courtway… especially when you’re a hard-working risk taker like 2013 graduate Kyle Tabor.

Tabor decided, while on a trip abroad to Italy during the summer before his senior year, that he wanted to open his own coffee shop in downtown Conway.

“I love coffee, so this was the best way that I knew how to make a good impact on my community,” Tabor said. “In Italy, the coffee culture is strong and there’s a coffee shop between every other building. I was really inspired by how coffee brought people together, inspired creativity, promoted collaboration and helped people communicate. I felt like it was a good thing for their community and I wanted to do that for my community too.” Tabor opened Conway’s beloved coffee shop Blue Sail Coffee on May 17, 2014.

However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Tabor’s self-run, self-started coffee shop. “Opening up was rough,” Tabor said. “The first four weeks I worked 120 hours a week just to keep the place going. I had one espresso machine and no furniture!” But now business is booming, and the shop is always bustling with people who are busy drinking coffee, typing on laptops or socializing.
“Socializing is a big part of staying healthy and happy,” Tabor said. “People need other people to be healthy. We need each other. I don’t know what it is, but coffee brings people together.”

He named his business in that same fashion. “Just like there are blue sails on a sailboat, it’s the vessel that represents the connection between where our coffee is grown in Guatemala and Burundi, Africa, and the farmers in those communities, and where the coffee is being consumed here in our community. That’s what Blue Sail is all about: just improving quality of life in communities on all ends of the supply chain of coffee.”

As for plans for the future, Tabor has some big dreams in the works. He plans to open a second Blue Sail location in the new Donaghey Hall building. Nothing is too big to dream about, according to Tabor.

“Irrationally believe that whatever you want to do can come true,” Tabor said. “If you believe you can do it, it will happen for real.”

University of Central Arkansas counselor Reesa Ramsahai didn’t always want to be a counselor. “My dad said, 鈥楻eesa, do something that makes money, and when you make money, go ahead and do something you love to do.’ And I did exactly that,” Ramsahai said, grinning. Originally, Ramsahai wanted to go into the fashion industry, and she was accepted to the Fashion Institute of New York, but she lived in New Jersey and knew that mechanical engineering would truly follow the plan her dad had set out for her. She earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

“I listened to my dad and did what he said, but I didn’t love it,” Ramsahai said. “I like people. Working with people in a helping way was what I truly wanted to do.” BT天堂had the degree and the atmosphere Ramsahai was looking for, so she came to Arkansas and earned her master’s in counseling psychology. As a BT天堂alumna and a BT天堂staff member, Ramsahai has a great vantage point of the advances and improvements in student health being made here on campus during the past 10 years.

“We’re focusing on health not only on the physical aspect but also on the mental aspect,” Ramsahai said. “It’s not just focused on students in the classroom, but on supporting them and their growth outside the classroom. One of the most positive areas of growth I’ve seen here is pertaining to our Student Government Association. They do a really, really good job. Without them, we wouldn’t have the Student Health Center or the amazing HPER Center that we have now.”

Working in the counseling center provides Ramsahai with the perfect atmosphere to really use her talents and love for helping others, and she is definitely an advocate for her profession. “Part of the growth of our students who come in to the counseling center is to develop an idea of who they are. While academics are going on, life is also going on. It’s challenging, and it’s about finding a balance,” Ramsahai said. “There is growth intellectually, but there is also growth emotionally and personally. No, students don’t get a diploma for the personal maturity they earn, but they sure do a lot of changing and maturing while they are here. We’re here to support that.” Ramsahai is definitely doing something she loves to do now.

Growing up in the South with a love for food isn’t necessarily uncommon, but for most people it doesn’t usually lead to a career in nutrition and an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America”. For 2003 and 2004 University of Central Arkansas graduate Alisha Farris, however, that’s exactly how it happened. “It sparked in me at a very young age, mostly because I really liked food: eating it and cooking it!” Farris said. “When I was at UCA, that led me to pursue a nutrition degree, and in my very first nutrition class, I learned how important nutrition is for the body and how it can affect every part your health. I was really fascinated by all of that.”

Farris’ interest led her to conduct the first study of its kind in which she compared the nutritional value of school lunches and packed lunches. “We observed more than 1,300 lunches of pre-K and kindergarten students who attended three schools for five consecutive school days, and then we analyzed the contents of those lunches for nutrients, macro- and micronutrients and also by food groups,” Farris said. Overall, the findings showed that packed lunches were of less nutritional quality than school lunches, following the implementation of new national nutrition standards in 2013.

The study was so successful that Farris and her research team were featured on “Good Morning America” as a morning news highlight on November 10, 2014. “If students brought a packed lunch, there were significantly more solid fats and added sugars in the forms of dessert items, sugar-sweetened beverages and chips,” Farris said. “Students were offered fewer fruits, vegetables and calcium in the form of milk, cheese and yogurt.”

Farris credits a lot of her success to the time she spent at UCA. “My time at BT天堂was super valuable,” Farris said. “It allowed me to do a master’s degree in a dietetic internship, which is required to be a registered dietician and is not offered everywhere. Additionally, I can remember when I was taking my classes as an undergrad being taught by some really great professors and thinking, 鈥楾his is really neat!’ and that this was something I would like to do for the rest of my life.”