Darlington’s Student Health Center director Renate Starr retired earlier this week after 19 years of service as a second mom to many on campus.
“I'm really going to miss the students and helping them to feel better,” said Starr. “I have always treated these kids like I treat my own.”
As an extension of the Office of Student Life, the Student Health Center cares for ill students, administers medication to boarding students, coordinates antibiotics, influenza vaccinations and annual physicals, makes appointments for boarding students with local doctors, works with trainers to evaluate sports-related injuries, and a variety of other services as they relate to caring for the physical health of the Darlington Community.
Before serving the domestic and international students at Darlington, the Albany, Ga. native became familiar with the world outside living abroad with her military family in England and Newfoundland. After graduating from high school in Warner Robins, Ga., Starr went on to get her RN from Georgia Baptist School of Nursing and her B.S.N. from the Medical College of Georgia.
Before becoming a stay-at-home mom to three, Starr worked at the University of Michigan Hospital in the diabetes research and training center, and also served on the medical surgical floor of University Hospital in Augusta, Ga. Between the first leg of her career and coming to Darlington, she also worked at Floyd Medical Center and Redmond Regional Medical Center as a patient health educator.
Taking care of patients has become something of a family business for Starr, whose husband, Trammell, is a pulmonologist with Harbin Clinic.
It was the quality of the opportunities offered for their young children that initially acquainted the Starrs with Darlington.
“We visited [other schools], but I was very impressed with the students at what was the Lower School at the time,” said Starr. “The kids walked right up to us and said hello. We wanted our children to be around that kind of self-confidence.”
After touring, there was no doubt for the family where the students needed to engage in the learning experience. Trammell IV ('00) began in Darlington’s kindergarten, and Nathan ('03) and Lacey ('06) in pre-kindergarten.
When it came time, Starr jumped at the opportunity to work close to her children.
She has fed kids soup from the center's kitchen when they were not feeling well. She has bandaged scrapes, cuts and other wounds. She has been a surrogate mother to ill boarding students far from home. She has given great doses of comfort to many students, alumni and faculty.
"Darlington’s nurses take care of the students in a professional, loving but firm way," said Starr. "I have stayed here when students have had surgeries and didn’t want their parents to come from far away. I have stayed here during snowstorms. It's what I hope any nurse would do."
In her role, Starr has made lifelong friends with many of the School’s international students, several of which still stay in touch.
“They call me their American mom—and I still get Mother’s Day presents, flowers and phone calls from one Korean student in particular that graduated in 2006,” said the nurse.
Starr has seen many changes on campus and in her department in particular over the last two decades, streamlining operations to become a more efficient and effective service for members of the Darlington Community.
“I don’t think we even had a computer back then—now I can’t imagine doing our job without one,” said Starr. “We email appointment reminders, contact heads of house, and email the parents to let them know what's going on with the students.”
Starr helped lead the charge to improve the care given to the Community by insisting that once licensed practical nurses (LPN) retired from her department, they were replaced by registered nurses (RN).
“I do think that we have a more experienced and professional staff now because of the confidential information that is so often involved," said Starr. "LPNs are supposed to work under the supervision of an RN, and I could not always be there to oversee.”
Starr and her former colleagues have also seen a partnership grow with the staff at Floyd Primary Care Pediatrics, which has helped the center to offer additional resources to the Darlington population. The single-most important change to campus operations that Starr feels has had the greatest impact was something that many now consider synonymous with Darlington's Upper School.
“The House System has supported our work to make everything much more efficient,” said Starr. “Before that, the children had a lot of different people in the dorms watching after them. Now, you have one person to call if you have a concern about a student—the administration made a wonderful decision.”
The newly-retired nurse does not have any intention of slowing down in this new chapter of her life. Starr plans to get more involved with the Junior Service League of Rome in her role as a sustainer, to serve at her church, Rome First United Methodist Church, as well as spend more of her time in the Mountain View Garden Club where she has been a member for over 30 years.
Starr and her husband already have several trips planned in the fall to celebrate, including trips to Alaska and Michigan, and hiking through Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park. Starr and her husband share a mutual interest for visiting national and state parks and plan to continue checking off items on their bucket list.
“Everyday was exciting. I have really enjoyed the students and getting to know them, keeping an eye on them when they are ill,” said Starr. “I have always looked at their job as being to go to school—so when they are sick, it is my job is to get them well and back to school as soon as possible.”
For more information about Darlington’s Student Health Center, contact healthcenter@darlingtonschool.org.
