As a five-year-old, Taylor Smith helped make a series of print ads for her mother's employer, The University of Texas at Arlington's nursing program.

The 1999 black and white ads showed Smith, a stethoscope around her neck, listening to the heartbeat of Stephen Priddy, the child of another nursing program employee.

Smith has only vague memories of making that ad, which she didn't see until the third or fourth grade at her school's nursing office.

"I remember my mom and other people telling me what to do," she recalled of the dimly lit room where the photos were shot. "I had no idea why I was there and why they were making us do it. I didn't know it was going to be an ad. I've seen it in my high school, I've seen it here, of course, on campus. My dad said one time he took a trip to a different state for a conference, and they had a large ad there."

Now life is imitating that ad.

In December, Smith graduated with a bachelor's degree in nursing from UTA's College of Nursing and Health Innovation. She is one of the college's nearly 1,700 fall graduates. The graduates included 1,506 undergraduates and 168 others who received master's and doctoral degrees.

Smith distinguished herself as a UTA student. She received several nursing scholarships for academic excellence. And she recently was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society.

"Taylor's story is by far one of the most amazing and most inspiring stories I have encountered," said Anne Bavier, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Innovation. "We celebrate Taylor and her hundreds of classmates who completed their degrees and are joining the next generation of health care professionals."

Smith plans to work in a Dallas-Fort Worth area hospital before returning to graduate school to pursue a master's of science degree, with a nurse practitioner certification in either women's health or family health.

Click here to read more about Smith's story.