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�鶹�� nursing students spend much of their time serving their patients with the best care possible. Madison Ireland ‘25 is no exception, but she serves more than just her patients in the clinical setting.  Ireland serves her country by being enlisted with the South Dakota Air National Guard. “I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and just do good in the world,” said Ireland. 

Ireland enlisted with the South Dakota Air National Guard in 2018 and is part of the 114th Fighter Wing based out of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. “I'm in weapons, so I load bombs and missiles onto F-16s. I launch and recover aircrafts, do functional jet checks, all that kind of stuff. … I am currently a Staff Sergeant in the United States Air Force.”

She found �鶹�� after previously attending another post-secondary institution and desiring a school that would provide more flexibility and balance between her nursing school obligations and Air National Guard duties. One of these duties includes going on Temporary Duty Assignments (TDYs). “It's like a two-week trip that you get to go on, and I've been fortunate enough to get to go on two within my six years of being in.” She has traveled to Yuma, Ariz. and Coronado Island, Calif. During these assignments, Ireland was helping the Navy and Marines with their training exercises. 

Becoming a nurse was always on Ireland’s radar ever since she was a child as she looked up to her mother who is a nurse manager of an obstetrics unit. “Growing up around that as a kid, I knew I wanted to care for people. I just remember playing with my mom’s stethoscope when she came home, and she got me this little nurse playset that had the otoscope and everything [that] I remember playing with. … And she has just always been an inspiration to me. She just has such a kind heart, and I just love how she treats her patients like they're one of her own.” Still today her mom is a big part of her nursing journey as Ireland goes to her for questions and to offer her nursing stories. 

Ireland currently plans to keep her nursing career in the civilian world separate from her Air National Guard duties, but much of what she has learned in the Air National Guard can be applied to her current and future experiences as well as her character. “I would love to be an emergency room (ER) [or] intensive care unit (ICU) nurse, possibly even an obstetrics (OB) nurse. I do think eventually down the road I … want to be a flight nurse. I … [feel] my Air Force experience … has helped me out a lot because you know a lot about airplanes and what goes into everything and about the flying schedule. And I have thought, too, about maybe commissioning down the road as a flight nurse in the military or just a nurse in the military down the road.”

Ireland takes with her the Air National Guard's core values: integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all you do. “Service before self, you know, like knowing … [that] even though I am in nursing school right now, I still have to go do my duties—like when I left for two weeks this past semester to go to Coronado for exercise, I knew that that was the main focus then. And just having excellence at all you do, like being proud of like who you are: proud to go to �鶹��, proud to be a Christian, proud to be serving in the armed forces, proud to be a wife, a daughter, a sister and everything like that. I just think those core values will bring me anywhere in my nursing career field.”

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ABOUT MOUNT MARTY UNIVERSITY

Founded in 1936 by the Benedictine Sisters of Sacred Heart Monastery, �鶹�� University is South Dakota's only Catholic institution of higher education. Located along the bluffs of the Missouri River in Yankton, with additional locations in Watertown and Sioux Falls, �鶹�� offers undergraduate and graduate degrees focusing on student and alumni success in high-demand fields such as health sciences, education, criminal justice, business, accounting, and more. A community of learners in the Benedictine tradition, �鶹�� emphasizes academic excellence and develops well-rounded students with intellectual competence, professional and personal skills and moral, spiritual and social values. To learn more, visit .