Butler University is expanding what it means to prepare students for the future. With the launch of Founder’s College—an associate degree program designed to provide access and affordability—and the new Bachelor of Science in Nursing—directly addressing Indiana’s critical healthcare needs—Butler is reducing barriers so students can pursue their passions and make an immediate impact on their communities.

Amelia Buhner

In searching for a college Nursing program, Amelia Buhner didn’t consider Butler.

“Because for the longest time, they didn’t have one,” she says.

Then, in May 2024, Butler announced the new Bachelor of Nursing program—right as she began her applications.

“When the news was announced, I was immediately interested and started getting connected with Dr. Seth Carey, the program’s Founding Director, and started making those contacts,” she says.

Now, Buhner is one of 48 students in the first year of the program, which is designed to get students into clinical settings by their second semester and ultimately help alleviate Indiana’s nursing shortage.

Buhner, who lives in Fishers and graduated from Cathedral High School in Indianapolis in May, says becoming a nurse had been her goal throughout high school. She had always loved the Butler University campus and said she was especially attracted to the new Nursing program because it offers direct admission, with no need for additional applications.

“When I talked to Dr. Carey, it really just felt like the right fit,” she says. “And it felt like that’s where I would be able to grow and be supported—not only in my education, but in all aspects of my life at Butler. It really just felt like home from the start. I didn’t have that feeling at any of the other schools I applied to.”

Buhner says entering the University’s first Nursing class also made attending Butler more appealing.

“It really was an awesome opportunity,” she says. “With the inaugural class, you get to set the pace for the generations and classes behind you. You get a very intimate class and you have special relationships with your professors, because they don’t have any other students to be looking out for. And once we have this first year under our belt, we get to join them in guiding the class behind us. I couldn’t pass that up.”

Four years from now, Buhner aspires to be a travel nurse, working in healthcare facilities around the country or internationally before returning to Indianapolis after a few years. She said her specialty “could absolutely change a million times,” but right now she wants to be an ER nurse.

For now, though, she looks forward to making an impact right where she is.

“We’re going to go out into the community and do amazing things—not only within the Butler community but within the Indianapolis community,” she says. “And I just could not be more excited to be a part of it.”

Emmanuelle Wagnac

When Emmanuelle Wagnac’s friend told her about Butler University’s new Founder’s College—which enables students with limited financial resources to graduate with an associate degree and little to no debt—she thought it sounded too good to be true.

“But I did some research and I found out more about it,” she says. “And honestly, they’re doing God’s work.”

Wagnac is one of 67 students in the first Founder’s College class, which opened this fall. The 2025 graduate of Warren Central High School in Indianapolis is majoring in Healthcare Studies (Clinical Science), one of five career-focused areas of study offered through the College. Founder’s College also offers two-year associate degrees in Business Data Analytics, Business Management Studies, Healthcare Studies (Medical Coding), and Youth and Community Advocacy.

Founder’s College is geared toward students who have at least a 2.5 GPA. Beyond that, Dean Carolyn Gentle-Genitty says, the College wants students who are “determined, they have academic ambition, they have wit with personal agency, they have grit and passion, and they have support.”

That’s Wagnac, who earned a 3.9 GPA in high school, participated in numerous activities including volunteer tutoring, and has the full support of her parents. She had applied to other colleges and universities—and been accepted—but she worried about graduating with a mountain of debt.

But it was more than the cost that sold her on Founder’s College: it was the way the faculty and staff championed her long before stepping foot on campus for her first day of class.

“They’re really patient—and I ask them a lot of questions,” she says. “They take time to answer as much as they can, giving me as much information as I need.”

In particular, she credits Stephanie Fernhaber, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Donneisha Baker, Associate Director Admission–Founder’s College, for making her comfortable and answering questions about her schedule, her classes, the curriculum, and more. They even made sure she had transportation to get to school, as Founder’s College students live at home to save on room and board costs. Their tuition includes meals when they’re on campus.

At the end of the two-year program, Wagnac is slated to graduate with an associate degree and the option to stay at Butler for a bachelor’s. She says that her career choice will boil down to either working in pharmacy or practicing medicine. But that’s a few years down the road. Right now, she’s just happy to be a Bulldog.

“I find it clever that they gave it the name ‘Founders College,’” she says, “because really, it’s the foundation of a person’s dream.”