became involved in the fields of music and design. Having found her first real niche, she spent a brief time studying the arts in Lowell, Massachusetts, and continued this education back in Ottawa. Nutting's sister was the principal at the Cathedral School for Girls, and this opened the door for Nutting's first real experience with teaching, as she spent a year instructing piano and music education. She is remembered as a very independent woman, and made the personal decision early on to not marry to prevent any hindrance of her career aspirations. Affiliation with Johns Hopkins University Nutting had an early interest in the arts, but, largely influenced by her admiration for Florence Nightingale, the British war-time nurse and patron of the modern nursing field, she developed a budding interest in nursing. This was compounded by the fact that Nutting underwent the painful experience of watching her mother slowly die at the hands of "incompetent" health care. Almost by sheer chance, she came across a newspaper article advertising for a brand-new opportunity to participate in a nurse training program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Johns Hopkins nursing program In October 1889, at the age of 31, Nutting was one of 17 students to enroll in the inaugural class at the Johns Hopkins school of nursing. This training program was a unique opportunity because admission required no prior experience or higher education; also, those who came from humble means still had accessibility to the school because rather than charge admission, students were required to work at the hospital and received a small salary. Nutting graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1891, placing fourth in her class. She decided to remain on the campus, taking a position as head nurse. In 1893, Nutting was promoted to assistant superintendent, and served under her close acquaintance Isabel Hampton. When Hampton made the decision to resign just a year later, Nutting assumed the role as superintendent and principal of the nursing school, which entailed both administrative and hospital service leadership. Advances in nursing education at Johns Hopkins In her newfound position of authority, Nutting saw an opportunity to make changes to the program at Johns Hopkins University and breakthroughs in the development of nursing curricula throughout the country. As one account says of her succession to superintendent: "Thus began her lifelong crusade to bring education of nurses within universities." One of the major flaws of