VILLANOVA, PA — What began as a quiet moment of reading turned into a hands-on health care lifeline for hundreds of schoolchildren in Camden, New Jersey, forging a new partnership that is reshaping nursing education at Villanova University while filling critical gaps in underserved communities.
The collaboration between Villanova’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing and Catholic Partnership Schools was sparked after Laura Kelly, a recently retired Villanova clinical professor of nursing, read a Spring 2024 Villanova Magazine profile of Jameka Walker, executive director of Catholic Partnership Schools and a 2023 Opus Prize finalist. Kelly reached out, seeing an opportunity to blend Villanova’s mission of service with urgent community health needs.
Those needs quickly came into focus. Catholic Partnership Schools operates five pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade schools in Camden and surrounding areas, where staffing shortages had made routine student health screenings difficult to complete. Families, particularly those with children in after-school sports, often struggled to obtain required physicals, which can be costly and time-consuming through outside providers.
Working alongside Becky Mueller ’07 FCN, ’17 PhD, RN, FNP-BC, CRNP, a clinical assistant professor and director of Villanova’s Nurse Practitioner programs, Kelly began recruiting graduate-level nurse practitioner students to help. The work aligned directly with the students’ required clinical experience, which includes at least 500 hours of hands-on training before graduation.
Mueller said the partnership gives students rare exposure to under-resourced settings while reinforcing Villanova’s emphasis on service. Graduate NP students now travel to Camden to conduct health screenings, provide sports physicals at no cost, and deliver classroom lessons focused on health promotion and wellness.
Walker said the collaboration was designed to benefit both sides. While Camden students gain access to care they might otherwise miss, Villanova students receive practical experience that mirrors real-world challenges they will face after graduation.
For students like Caroline Banas ’25 MSN, who participated in two visits during the fall 2025 semester, the experience offered a broader understanding of pediatric care beyond hospital walls. Sarah Finocchiaro ’25 MSN, who also volunteered on two trips, said the work resonated personally, recalling her own struggles as a single mother trying to secure sports physicals for her children.
The impact has been measurable. During just two visits in the fall 2025 semester, Villanova NP students completed 25 sports physicals, nearly doubling the number performed between the first and second trips as word spread among families. According to Walker, those 25 students would not have been able to participate in sports without the screenings.
Beyond health care, the relationship has expanded into broader service. During Villanova’s 2024 and 2025 St. Thomas of Villanova Day of Service, volunteers worked at all five Catholic Partnership Schools, painting tricycle tracks and four-square courts, repairing basketball courts, and maintaining community gardens.
Mueller said her own commitment to service was shaped after graduating from Villanova in 2007, when she volunteered with an Augustinian program at a free clinic connected to a homeless shelter in San Diego. She now sees the Camden partnership as a way to pass that ethic on to the next generation of nurses.
Looking ahead, Villanova and Catholic Partnership Schools are exploring ways to expand the collaboration, including bringing in psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner students to teach mindfulness and mental health programming for middle school students. The goal, leaders say, is to address both physical and emotional well-being at a critical stage of development.
What started with a magazine article has evolved into a sustained, mission-driven effort that blends education, faith, and service — and for students and families alike, it is already changing outcomes.
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