How One Arizona College of Nursing Student Landed Her Dream Nursing Job Before Graduation Through Clasp
Arizona College of Nursing’s Partnership with Clasp helped one student land a job, a paid move, and opportunity to have $30,000 in student loans paid off.
Some people spend their whole lives searching for their calling. But for one of our graduating BSN students at Arizona College of Nursing (AZCN), caring for others was second nature from the very start.
“I was born to be a nurse. I started out when I was nine years old…taking care of a family member. Then I was a paid caregiver at 18, I became a [Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)] in my early 20s, and then I got my associates in allied health. I’d been a medical assistant for 11 years, so just when I topped out as a medical assistant, it was time to just go ahead and finish out the nursing,” shared Rebecca Cathey, a semester 9 student at Arizona College of Nursing’s Tempe Campus.
When it came to take that next step and pursue her BSN, she chose a path that allowed her to jump right into her passion without any delay.
“I have a couple of friends [who went to AZCN], so they told me there was no wait list, you jump right in. I think I left a message on a Friday, got a call back on Monday, and I was in classes by Thursday.”
Now, as she prepares for graduation in August 2026, she is stepping into a new chapter of her career in the Mother-Baby Unit at Lovelace Women’s Hospital. Even better? She secured this job weeks before crossing the stage at graduation, and she is getting up to $30,000 in student loan repayment while doing it through Arizona College of Nursing’s partner with Clasp.
Discovering Clasp
While working toward her BSN, Rebecca kept an eye out for ways to keep her education affordable. One day, an email sitting in her inbox from the College altered her path for the better.
“It was just one of those emails that everybody gets like, ‘oh, hey, here’s an opportunity anybody might be interested in.’ I’ve always wanted to be a nurse, but I didn’t always want to pay to be a nurse. I have been looking for ways to get my education paid since before I started,” Rebecca said.
That email was about the Clasp program, which offers nursing students job security before graduation and student loan repayment opportunities. Through Clasp, future nurses are matched with health systems that make direct monthly payments to student loans as soon as full-time employment begins.
“That’s what really hit me, the fact that they were willing to pay a good portion of my loans off,” Rebecca added.
With Clasp’s $30,000 given toward student loans, Rebecca is set to wipe out a good portion of her student debt in over 3 years. Plus, they are set up to help fund her future master’s degree!
The Clasp Application Process
According to Rebecca, applying through Clasp was quick and easy. She explained that she applied on the Clasp website and that much of the application was based around her and her personal career goals.
“They have just a real basic short application and then they have a recruiter that will reach out to you. The recruiter will have a conversation [to learn] where you’re trying to go, what you’re trying to accomplish, what your interests are, what states you are willing to look into, and we had the conversation about what my goals were,” shared Rebecca.
Once she connected with the first recruiter to discuss what she was looking for in a job post graduation, she was set up with interviews at the different hospitals Clasp partners with. For Rebecca, Lovelace Women’s Hospital caught her eye. She explained that throughout her career, she had always wanted to get into women’s health.
Rebecca spoke with their recruiter and got set up for interviews at Lovelace Women’s Hospital. The specific role was working in the NICU with mothers, babies, labor, and delivery.
Preparing for the Move to Albuquerque
Relocating to a new state with two kids sounds like a lot, especially for a single mom of two. However, Clasp and Lovelace teams have helped make the entire process as stress-free as possible for Rebecca and her family.
According to Rebecca, she was provided with:
Full-Service Movers: They handle the heavy lifting, packing everything up from her current home in Arizona and dropping it off to her new one in New Mexico.
Family and Pet-Friendly Housing: A dedicated real estate agent helped her find the perfect rental for her, her two kids, and her cat!
A Shift to Shadow: Lovelace flew Rebecca out for a 6-hour shift so that she could meet the day and night teams she may be working with, tour the hospital, and make sure it felt like a great fit prior to signing the contract.
According to Rebecca, her kids are not only proud of their mother for securing this job but already obsessed with the move. On a clinical rotation, a respiratory therapist told Rebecca about New Mexico’s famous “Singing Highway,” which is a stretch of road near Albuquerque with a section of rumble strips that play ‘America the Beautiful’ when you drive over them. Now, her 5 and 8-year-olds are telling their friends they get to drive on the musical road every day.
“My kids are just so excited for a new adventure…and now my kids are over the top… [because] we are going to go to the singing roads every day,” Rebecca said.
From Hospice Care to Bringing New Life Into the World
For Rebecca, stepping into a role in women’s health and neonatal care feels like a full-circle moment in her career.
“As a CNA, I did hospice for 11 years. I spent a good portion of my career watching life leave this world. So, I always had this thought it would be amazing to end my career bringing life into the world,” said Rebecca.
Her passion to work in labor and delivery was strengthened during her clinicals where she worked multiple rotations in the NICU. It was there that she discovered her love for caring for neonates.
“I think that’s going to be my end goal now,” Rebecca explained. “I’m going to start in the mother-baby unit and possibly do a rotation into labor and delivery with the NICU.”
In this role at Lovelace, Rebecca is getting to work on her passion and combine her 10+ years of healthcare experience with high-energy, compassionate bedside care.
Getting Support Through AZCN
According to Rebecca, nursing school was rewarding but not without its challenges. It takes real drive and hard work when you are balancing classes with your personal life. Rebecca credits her family’s incredible support, including her mom, as well as her many mentors on campus for helping her succeed in nursing school.
“Being able to accomplish [nursing school] in such a short period of time, really set me to where I feel like I could go rule the world now. Like if I can do this program, I can do anything,” Rebecca shared. “My family helped me and if I didn’t have my mom here, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish this program.”
When things got tough in and out of school, Rebecca also explained that there were many faculty members willing to step up and help. Maryn Moreni, MSN-FNP, RN, CNE, a full-time faculty member and associate professor at Arizona College of Nursing, stuck out for Rebecca as she always was willing to help with 1-on-1 tutoring and encouragement to make sure she felt confident with class material.
“Professor Moreni was amazing. There [were] a couple of times where I [was] on the struggle bus and didn’t know how I [was] going to get through…I pushed through and she’s pulled me up,” Rebecca recalled.
Her bond with Professor Moreni was so strong through the program that she actually will be doing her official pinning at graduation.
Rebecca’s Advice for Fellow Students
If you are sitting on the fence about applying for Clasp or putting yourself out there for early interviews as you head into the workforce, Rebecca’s advice is to “just go for it.”
“Even if you don’t accept a job out of state and work with the program, just doing the interview with the recruiters and jumping into that is such a good experience that will set you up for other interviews,” Rebecca said.
Rebecca said that this program has also opened her eyes to everything you can do with a nursing degree.
“I’ve looked into travel nursing, in-flight dialysis nurses…Medicare and Medicaid. They have nurses that review charts and do prior authorizations. There’s just so many different aspects I never knew were there besides bedside,” she explained.
Opportunities like Clasp are designed to help our students secure a job long before they graduate while also helping pay off student loans.
Clasp is currently partnered with Arizona College of Nursing’s Las Vegas and Tempe campuses.
Start Your Future in Nursing Today
If you’re considering a career as a registered nurse (RN), Arizona College of Nursing is here to help you pursue your dream. Our BSN program enables you to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in just 3 years or less with qualifying transfer credits. We’ve helped hundreds of students to earn a BSN degree and enter the nursing profession – and we’re ready to support you on your path to becoming an RN.
Why Choose Arizona College of Nursing?
- Earn a BSN degree in 3 years or less with eligible transfer credits
- Campus locations throughout the US
- Night classes for general education courses
- Hybrid Online/In-Person format for general education classes
- Nursing education is all we do
- CCNE-Accredited Program*
- NCLEX-RN success coaches and exam preparation class
- Financial aid available to those who qualify
Discover Your Path to a Career in Nursing
Information in this post is accurate as of August 10, 2026.
*The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program at Arizona College of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (https://www.aacnnursing.org/). All Arizona College of Nursing and Arizona College campuses are institutionally accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (https://www.abhes.org/), a U.S. Department of Education-recognized accrediting agency.