Meeting President George Bush was an opportunity of a lifetime for UNMC nursing graduate student Rosa Weatherly.
Bush was in Omaha Wednesday to promote his plan for immigration reform.
Weatherly was among the crowd at Metropolitan Community College in south Omaha who listened to the president’s 30-minute speech on assimilation and then talked briefly to the fellow Texan.
“It was an honor to meet and speak with him,” said Weatherly, president of the Nebraska Chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. “It’s one of my top experiences.”
She said the president was familiar with her hometown of Winters, Texas. “I was honored that he knew where my little hole-in-the-wall town was,” Weatherly said, noting the town in central Texas has approximately 2,880 residents.
Weatherly told Bush she returned to Texas every couple of years. “You know what you’d find if you went home?” President Bush said. “It’s hot and dusty.”
Weatherly, a master of science in nursing student in UNMC’s Health System Nurse Specialist program, said she’ll treasure Wednesday’s experience.
“I don’t know how to put it into words,” she said. “I know he’s just a person, but he’s the President of the United States. I still get butterflies when I think about shaking his hand and talking with him.”