Southwestern Salutatorian trading country life for city life on campus at IU Indianapolis

Southwestern High School’s Class of 2025 Salutatorian already has a family full of nurses that graduated from the University of Indiana Indianapolis.

Aurora Belton felt no need to stray from a strong family tradition.

“My mom and a bunch of other family members are nurses and went to IU Indianapolis,” she explained. “They loved it there and it’s a really great program. I visited a couple of other smaller colleges. They were nice but their nursing programs weren’t what I was looking for.

“Once I went to IU Indianapolis, it was more hands-on learning. They have a lot of hospitals readily available to do your clinicals at. I just felt it was the best place for me.”

Belton’s goal is to get a master’s degree and become a Nurse anesthetist.

“That may change as I go to Nursing School and go to clinicals and fall in love with a different field,” she said. “I am pretty open right now.”

Belton was active at Southwestern in both golf and tennis, where she was an All-Conference performer in each sport. She helped the golf team win the Shelby County Tournament and Mid-Hoosier Conference Tournament her junior season.

“We had a good group,” she said. “We really enjoyed ourselves.”

She also was a cheerleader and participated in Student Council, Sunshine Society and 4-H.

Being the salutatorian comes with the honor of giving a speech at the graduation ceremony.

“I was really nervous, definitely,” said Belton. “When I was writing my speech, I didn’t want to do anything where I was trying to be super motivational because that is not who I am.

“I gave my thank yous. I left a little tidbit of words of advice for my class and that was it. It went really well.”

Belton is currently enjoying a leisurely summer. She recently returned from a Florida vacation and heads out later this month with her family to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky.

Once August rolls around, Belton has to make the transition from the country life she has enjoyed in southern Shelby County to city life on campus in Indianapolis.

“I am really nervous it will be too much for me,” she said. “I’ve lived in the country my whole life in the middle of nowhere.”

Belton will be able to lean on the support of fellow Southwestern graduate Tori Burkhart, who will be one of her two roommates on campus.

“I always get nervous about everything and then things end up fine,” she said with a smile.

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