Destination Success | Madi Kee

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May 06th, 2026

Destination Success | Madi Kee

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I'm Madison Key. I'm from the small town of Locust, North Carolina. I graduated in 2025 from the nursing school at High Point University with my bachelor of science in nursing. I am now working at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Brenner Children's Hospital and their pediatric emergency department.

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I found out about High Point University on social media and immediately booked a tour. As soon as I stepped on campus, it immediately felt like home. Everyone was so welcoming and felt like they genuinely wanted me to be here.

When I first came to High Point University, I was an exercise science major. It wasn't until my sophomore year that I decided I wanted to be a nurse. And that happened the day that I became a patient at the hospital that I'll be working for.

I was treated by an amazing nurse who brought me comfort in the scariest moment of my life and inspired me to do the same for others.

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I was very fortunate during my time at High Point Nursing School to have many great mentors, specifically Dr. Stephanie Smoot, Dr. Rachel Phelps, and Professor Rebecca Gurley. They were absolutely transformative in my nursing journey.

They really emphasized not only becoming a great nurse, but to be a great person first. They taught us the clinical knowledge and the clinical skills well, but they really also focused on compassion and empathy and how to advocate for your patients, which is so important when it comes to nursing.

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Being a nursing student at High Point University was an amazing experience. We have state-of-the-art facilities with mannequins and all the up-to-date technology that you see in the hospitals today, which was really important for me starting my job.

I was already very comfortable with things like the IV pumps and some policies and procedures.

And then going into the hospital, we had a little under a thousand hours, great faculty to help guide us and to kind of ease that transition. And that was something that really set High Point University School apart from others.

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Something I would tell incoming freshmen is to make the most of your college experience. High Point has so many resources. Please utilize them.

They will help prepare you. They'll give you support during the hard times and they'll build up your foundation to going out into the real world.

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Not only was I a nursing student, but I also played on the club volleyball team all four years. My last two years being a captain, which provided me with some leadership experience.

I was also a resident assistant for three years, which gave me a lot of experience with compassion and caring for others, which definitely followed me into my nursing career.

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High Point University's call to action, choose to be extraordinary, to me means setting yourself apart. Making the conscious decision each day to make yourself a better person, to refuse to be complacent and push yourself outside of your comfort zone.

It doesn't just mean being an extraordinary student while you're here. It means being an extraordinary person for life.

Madi Kee describes her journey from a nursing student at High Point University to her current role in pediatric emergency medicine at Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Brenner Children's Hospital. She credits HPU's exceptional faculty mentorship, state-of-the-art facilities, and robust student resources with preparing her for clinical practice. Through extracurricular involvement and adopting the university's 'Choose to be Extraordinary' motto, Madi exemplifies the comprehensive education HPU provides.