“Come play for me.”

Hearing those words, Isabella (Bella) Martinelli changed directions. She had been prepared to start school at a small college in Wisconsin, ready to play lacrosse and major in Nursing; but, when David Pomeroy said he had the opportunity to coach at another school and wanted her to join him, she listened.

“He just gave me the name of the school, not the location,” she says. When she and her family looked up Davis & Elkins and learned it was in West Virginia, they hesitated. Would she actually leave Chicago for Elkins? She decided that she needed to see the place, so once she graduated high school on Thursday, the family hopped in the car at 3 a.m. on Friday and made the drive down.

They arrived during a rainstorm and drove the wrong way on the commuter lot driveway: not a great start.

However, after they had a tour, and talked with Senior Director of Enrollment Management and Student Success Angie Scott, Bella says she “fell in love with the hominess” of the place. She drove back to Chicago on Saturday, filled out her application on Sunday (while doing her hair for prom) and then was accepted on Monday. Four years later, she has no regrets—she ended up playing lacrosse and majoring in Nursing, just 800 miles away from where she originally planned.

She also found her next adventure, having been accepted to an oncology ICU residency program at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. “It’s exciting,” says Bella. “The program helps you gradually adjust to being a floor nurse, rather than being thrown to the wolves.”

Bella credits the nursing staff at D&E for preparing her for this next step. “The professors are incredible,” she says, “and treat you like their own kids.” She calls Professors Valerie Posey, Victoria Klinger, Christina Swecker, and Karen Seel the “heart and soul of the program.” They are the “four pillars that hold the nursing students together.” In addition, the small size of D&E provides a close-knit community that offers support and encouragement. It also, given its location, allowed Bella to get a “different perspective on nursing,” by connecting her with rural hospitals. She saw how “standards of care could differ” based on location, especially after she completed a summer internship back in Chicago at Swedish Hospital.

Of course, it wasn’t all nursing classes. Bella remembers a first-year film class with Professor Lonnie Martin. “He still remembers my name after four years,” says Bella. The class was “a lot of fun,” but also “a lot of scary movies,” which meant stepping out of her comfort zone.

And there is lacrosse, with the coach who brought her to D&E, David Pomeroy. “He’s the driving force,” says Bella. “We had about twelve girls on the field my first year,” she says, “and now we have 28. It’s been incredible to watch.” She says the team has created a culture with such a positive atmosphere, and it extends beyond the field. You can often find the team gathering together for different college activities—just this semester they all went to see D&E’s production of Peter and the Starcatcher, to support their announcer, Jon Bennett, who played the pirate Black Stache. They also went, says Bella, “because Coach loves plays.”

To give herself something else to do, Bella also serves as a Student Ambassador, welcoming prospective students to campus (and hopefully telling them the correct way to drive on the commuter driveway). Bella says that she recommends to any incoming student that they “do things that scare you and try to talk to everybody.” That approach has helped Bella claim friends from around the world. “I have friends from Canada and Rio,” she says. “My friends at state schools don’t have that.”

Earlier this semester, Bella’s contributions to the D&E community were recognized with the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award. The award recognizes an outstanding senior woman and is given in recognition of fine spiritual qualities practically applied to daily living, athletic achievement, success in business, professional ability, political leadership, or mere worldly prominence in any calling.

After graduation, Bella plans to take her nursing exam, NCLEX, to receive her nursing license, and then it’s off to Baltimore to begin her residency. She says studying for the NCLEX is more than about memorization. “You can memorize things,” says Bella, but if you can’t apply them . . .” She says the test is set up like case studies: “They give you all this information about a patient, and then ask you, ‘what would you do next?’ That’s more difficult than memorizing information.”

Fortunately, Bella seems more than ready to answer that question, both with nursing situations and with her future.