If a trip to Aspen, Colo., doesn’t cure whatever ails you, then perhaps a student nurse can. This summer, the department of nursing began a cooperative internship program with Aspen Valley Hospital in which two nursing students spend 10 weeks in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains learning the bumps and bruises of hospital life. If they do well, they’re offered jobs after graduation.

Department chair Susan Schmidt created the program along with Aspen Valley’s assistant administrator, Linda Karaus, a 1989 M.B.A. graduate. “We’ve been trying to get something like this set up with local hospitals but haven’t had any success,” says Schmidt. “I was talking to Linda at a cocktail party and she went back and put the whole thing together on their end in about a week.”

The hospital benefits because it gets first shot at hiring the best nursing students, says Schmidt. The University benefits because it has a great incentive to offer potential students. And the students benefit because, well, who wouldn’t want to live and work in Aspen?

Illustration by Dave Beck