SAN ANTONIO – Rhonda Cataline is a veteran, a nurse and after recently graduating from the University of the Incarnate Word, she’s looking forward to helping others during this challenging time.
“My mother is actually a nurse and seeing everything that she did really inspired me,” Cataline said.
Rhonda Cataline has always been drawn to the medical field so, when she joined the Navy as enlisted, she was a hospital corpsman.
“I spent about seven years doing medical care in the Navy and then transitioned to this side,” said Cataline. “So, my dream has always been to be a nurse. It just took me about 10 years to get there.”
Cataline now has a bachelors in Science Nursing and through the Navy’s Medical Enlisted commissioning program, she was able to remain “active duty” throughout nursing school at the University of the Incarnate Word.
“After I graduated, I got commissioned into the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps,” said Cataline. “In a couple months, I’ll be moving to North Carolina and working at a naval hospital there. I transferred from the enlisted side to the officer side. So I’m starting out as an O-1 in the nurse corp.”
Cataline is originally from Shelbyville, Illinois, but her service has taken her to Italy, San Diego and San Antonio, where she says she did a lot of community outreach with the University of the Incarnate Word.
“They focus on not just the educational material, but like a wholistic and spiritual aspect of caring for people,” said Cataline. “And, they really care about the underserved populations and reaching out to them and giving us the tools that we need to help people. So, it was a really special experience to learn at the Incarnate Word.”