At the heart of Frontier Nursing University is a talented and diverse community of students, alumni, faculty, staff, Couriers and preceptors. Spotlight blogs feature members of our FNU community that are focused on the mission of educating nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners to deliver quality health care to underserved and rural populations.
In 1928, Mary Breckinridge, founder of Frontier Nursing University established the Courier Program, recruiting young people to come work in the Kentucky Mountains and learn about service to humanity. Couriers escorted guests safely through remote terrain, delivered medical supplies to remote outpost clinics, and helped nurse-midwives during home visits and births. Frontier has benefited tremendously from the 1,600 Couriers who have served since 1928.
Mary White was a Courier at Wendover
in the fall of 1976. She grew up in Mclean Virginia, close to Washington, D.C where many Courier alumni lived. She heard about the Courier Program from her next door neighbor, who was a Courier when Mary Breckinridge was alive. Mary loved horses, and the FNS horse-riding midwives captured her imagination.
Mary recalls her time as a Courier as largely unsupervised, perhaps due to the temporary lack of a Courier Coordinator. Nonetheless, the Couriers found plenty of things to keep them busy. Several times a week, Mary drove the Frontier Nursing Service Jeeps to make deliveries. She drove children to Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati, made house calls with FNS nurses, and rescued the garden below the big house that had long been buried in weeds.
In her spare time as a Courier, Mary learned to weave baskets from white oak splits, was introduced to Pentecostal church traditions, gained an appreciation for quilting and twig furniture, and was once permitted to ride deep into the coal mine around the corner from the Big House—an area littered with fossils. She especially appreciated long conversations with Brownie and Kate Ireland over outstanding meals in the lovely old dining room in the Big House.
Mary has never forgotten her introduction to Appalachian culture, the health needs of the very poor, and coal country history and politics. While she didn’t know it at the time, in hindsight, this experience was clearly one of several that led her to a career in medical ethics and global health. She is now in her twentieth year teaching in the medical school at Wright State University, in Dayton, Ohio.
She enjoyed her experiences so much that she returned to Wendover on several different occasions as a senior Courier. Her last visit to Wendover was in 1959. Her mother was a Courier in the 1920s, which largely influenced Jane to participate in the Courier Program as well.
her sophomore and junior years of college, in the summer of 1957 . She learned about the program through family members. According to family legend, Jean and Mary Breckinridge were double cousins. It was a combination of family history, an interest in medicine, an interest in riding, and an interest to see what being a Courier was like that inspired her to participate in the Courier Program. She grew up outside of Lexington, Kentucky and was interested to see how living in the bluegrass was completely different than living in the mountains.
Program from a professor at Maryville College. Her professor encouraged her to travel to Frontier in her junior year to assist with bookkeeping. However, it was not until just prior to her graduation in 1941 that she made the decision to come to Frontier Nursing Service.
Program from a friend who had been a Courier the year before. She was just out of high school and was looking for an opportunity to explore an area outside of her hometown. She was interested in the program, and so she traveled to Wendover in 1994 to serve as a Courier. 
Lima, Peru, during which Elia Cole spent time observing in a hospital, she was inspired to explore public health issues in her own country—particularly in areas with limited resources. When she came across the Courier Program, she realized this internship was the perfect combination of education and adventure.
Red Bird Clinic and at Mary Breckinridge Hospital, but the majority of her time was spent at Wendover. As a Courier, Ruth served tea, took care of horses, and enjoyed the company of other Couriers and Wendover staff.
to serve as a Courier. She learned of the Courier Program from a classmate at her high school who had been to Frontier. Leslie enjoyed riding horses and wanted to learn more about nursing, so the Courier Program seemed like a great opportunity. Leslie took a year off from college and traveled to Wendover .