Jared Esplin
The average day for Jared Esplin looks very different than it did three years ago, when the Idaho native worked on his fifth-generation, family-run dairy farm in the small city of Shelley.
Dairy operations there were round-the-clock, 365 days a year, and involved tending the property, maintaining equipment, bookkeeping, and milking cows three times a day.
“A day in the life of a dairy farmer, it’s different every day,” he said. “It’s not for the faint of heart.”
Today, Esplin still works long days but instead spends them studying, training, and taking care of people while pursuing nursing at Weber State University.
The shift from farm life to nursing came in 2022: “My wife and I spoke a lot about it… we decided the dairy wasn’t for us anymore and we needed to do something else,” he said.
Esplin and his wife, Serena, sold their portion of the dairy and moved to Utah for a “fresh start” three years ago, settling with their three young children in Harrisville, a few miles north of Weber State.
Esplin dabbled in software sales for a time, but it didn’t challenge him in the way nursing could — a career he knew well because Serena has worked as a nurse for 10 years, mostly in labor and delivery.
He learned about Weber State’s top-tier nursing programs through people in his wife’s circles who said students coming out of WSU were simply “better nurses.”
“Seeing nurses, seeing what they do, how they can care for patients really drove me to pursue a career in nursing,” Esplin said.
Esplin took advantage of high honors scholarships during his first three semesters at WSU, then earned a private scholarship funded by the C. Scott and Dorothy E. Watkins Charitable Foundation that has supported 548 nursing students since 2011.
During his time at WSU, Esplin has formed strong relationships with his nursing cohort, who dubbed the program “The Gauntlet” due to the rigorous training that has honed their skills.
“Weber State is an opportunity for growth, to learn, to make a difference in the world,” he said. “We’ve been able to help and support each other in this process.”
Esplin said his professors are active in their nursing careers, bringing real-world experience and perspective to the classroom, and showing students the variety of areas where nurses can serve, from hospice care to the ER and beyond.
Coming back to school in his 30s felt intense, but only for a moment. “A lot of people my age are already well into their careers,” he said. “But there’s a lot of other nontraditional students here at Weber State. The time is going to pass anyway, we might as well be improving ourselves, making changes for the better.”
This summer, at 37, Esplin earned his associate degree and is already starting his bachelor’s program this week. The BSN is an accelerated online program designed to be completed in two or three semesters.
Esplin said the degree will make him “more valuable to employers,” including the nationally recognized Primary Children’s Hospital, where Esplin recently secured a job in the cardiac care unit.
With that experience, he wants to eventually earn a doctorate and become a nurse anesthetist. He wants to have a positive impact on people and be the nurse who goes the extra mile in caring for families during scary situations.
As a business owner turned nurse, Esplin also wants to show his children — ages 14, 8, and 7 — that they can do hard things, no matter their age.
“It’s never too late, nothing is too complicated,” he said. “If you want to learn, if you’re willing to put in the effort, it’s attainable.”