A December 2011 graduate of Missouri State, this week’s #LeaderBear has finished an accelerate nursing program in Kansas City, MO and will continue her education to receive a Doctorate of Nursing Practice. She works now as an Oncology Nurse at The Research Medical Center. Ultimately, Azure hopes to start a foundation whose main focus will be to sponsor events that will raise money to benefit cancer research. Her experience in leadership programs, such as Commerce Bank Emerging Leaders both as a participant and facilitator, has definitely helped her get to where she is now.

“The Emerging Leaders program molded me into a very confident leader by challenging me to think outside of the box and exposed me to topics that I didn’t even believe to be within the realm of leadership. The activities and discussions were highly stimulating and I learned something new every single day. I continue to utilize several of the tools and activities I learned in the program to this day. I also really love that the leadership programs facilitate interaction among a wide variety of students on campus, which allows values, ideas, and leadership styles of all kinds to be shared throughout the program. This helped me grow into a flexible leader who understands and appreciates differences among people.”

Her advice for younger students is to try as many things as possible. Whether it’s a class, experience, or another opportunity – try new things. Go outside of your comfort zone and don’t hesitate to try new things. She says that exploring things we don’t know is a positive way to live.