Standout nursing student has eye on advanced degree The Telegraph FacebookTwitterEmail Elam GODFREY — Some people know what they want to do from a young age. Others, like Lewis and Clark Community College Nursing graduate Christopher Elam, are guided by circumstance. Elam, who graduated with his Associate in Applied Science in Nursing this spring and earned the Nursing Leadership Award, graduated from Edwardsville High School in 2004. After spending several years working in retail management, he decided to pursue a nursing degree. “The reason I decided to go back to school was because we unexpectedly lost my mom to a medical accident,” Elam said. “I started questioning what happened. I also started self-reflecting on what type of impact I was having on the world. I no longer had a sense of fulfillment in my career and wanted to do something in which I could positively impact people’s lives.”