Class of ’26 | Nicolette deChamplain

Nicolette deChamplain | Sanford, North Carolina

She was in elementary school when her mother suffered a stroke in 2013, and the experience had a profound effect on Nicolette deChamplain. Regular visits to the hospital showed her the impact a nurse can have on not just their patient, but their patient’s family as well.

“You see these incredible people saving someone’s life, and I just knew I wanted to do that,” she says. “I want to be someone who’s there for others, to tell them it’s going to be OK.”

deChamplain will study nursing with hopes of starting a career somewhere in North Carolina. She chose Campbell over other nursing schools because the school and the program felt like home. 

“I really feel like this is where I’m meant to be,” she says. “I hope four years from now I’m stronger than I am right now — that I’m the leader I know I can be. I want to show people college was worth it and inspire them to take that leap of faith.”

These stories are only the beginning. For this edition of Campbell Magazine, they’re an introduction to 12 students —chosen randomly during the third of four summer orientations hosted on the main campus this year — and a documentation of expectations heading into a four-year college journey.

All 12 agreed to give us more than just the 20 minutes it took to talk and take a few photos back in June. They’re allowing us to check in over the next four years to help chronicle their Campbell experience. And they’ve all agreed to sit down with us again in May 2026 to share their updated stories (and take a few more photos). In order to tell a story of growth and maturation, it’s best to start at the very beginning.

These interviews revealed a heightened sense of hope for a group whose high school careers were defined and marred by a global pandemic. Online classes became the norm, and many of their gatherings and social events were masked or socially distanced. Proms, athletic events and milestone ceremonies were either canceled, altered or virtual.

“Man is, by nature, a social animal,” Aristotle once wrote. Second to earning a degree and starting a career, this class is eager to connect socially with their peers and become part of an “experience” and a community that they mostly missed out on in high school.

It’s our hope that all 12 of these students join us again in four years to tell us all about their Campbell experience. We’re confident that those who do will return older, wiser, more confident and ready to take on the world.

We’re excited to tell these stories. See you in 2026.