Wake up at 10.

Cereal or coffee?

Carolina hoodie or North Face jacket?

Run to class at 11:15; nap before your afternoon lab.

Hit the gym, and you’re done by 6.

Three days a week, second-year nursing student Maria Hamlett wakes up at 5:30 a.m. for physical training (and by training, we don’t mean the treadmill at the Strom). On Thursdays, she wears a uniform to class, but not the scrubs of a nurse. By 8, she leaves for her classes with course titles such as “Naval Military Lab” and “Naval Military History.”

Along with her heavy course load, this Alpha Delta Pi sorority sister and Young Life leader is a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).

“It was one of those things where I said to myself,  ‘I think I’m going to try this one day,’” Maria admits.

Maria decided to become a nurse because she loves helping others and likes the fast-paced environment of a hospital. But this past winter, the Richmond, Va., native decided to join ROTC after one of her nursing professors asked a spokesperson to speak to her class. Following this visit, Maria made her commitment and has never looked back.

“I like the organization and the discipline that is a focus in the ROTC,” says Maria. “The hardest part is trying to balance it all. Sleep is like a rare concept to me right now.”

When Maria graduates from USC, she will be commissioned as an officer in the Navy Nurse Corps for four years. She is excited to have a job in the nursing field.

“If there was a time to join the Navy,” she says, “it would be now.”