Alazia Greaves interlocked her fingers and began compressions.

Adrenalin rushed through her veins.

Her patient's heart had stopped for the second time in only a few hours and Greaves, a registered nurse at UPMC Jameson in New Castle and fresh off passing her boards, was doing everything she could to keep the woman alive.

“You just become so focused and in 'nurse mode,'” Greaves said. “It's like calm, organized chaos.”

Greaves, a 2017 Moniteau High School graduate and a senior at Westminster College, is no stranger to performing under pressure.

She's done it for as long as she can remember.

In school.

In sports.

In her daily life.

She's been molded by adversity. Pressed and formed by challenges.

She craves it; thrives off of it.

Greaves is taking on a lot these days: a full-time job in the intensive care unit, in part tending to COVID-19 patients, a full course-load at Westminster College as she finishes up her bachelor's degree after already graduating from the Jameson School of Nursing.

And, of course, basketball.

It's an unusual trifecta, but one Greaves relishes.

“Time management,” Greaves says, chuckling, when asked how she balances it all. “Trying to sleep when I can.”

This is an excerpt from a larger article that appears in Wednesday's Butler Eagle. Subscribe online or in print to read the full article.

Alazia greaves