Colorguard captain Jordan Sleeper bids farewell

BY MICAELA SULLIVAN

Multimedia Journalist

For nursing major Jordan Sleeper, crossing the stage on Dec. 12, 2025, will not only mark the end of her journey at Tarleton State University, but also the end of long clinicals, long colorguard rehearsals and endless memories.

Born in Bryan, Texas, to mother and father Dana and William Sleeper III, Sleeper is 22 and graduating with a Bachelors of Science in nursing and a minor in psychology.

While many nursing majors would be focused solely on long lectures and getting clinical hours, Sleeper spent every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at band practice and colorguard rehearsals. She also spent her Saturdays at football games fully decked out in the iconic purple pride colorguard uniform cheering on the Tarleton football team.

Sleeper has proudly been a member of The Sound & The Fury marching band and Purple Pride Colorguard for the past five years. However, before Tarleton’s colorguard, she had previously been a part of Lovejoy High School’s colorguard in Lucas, Texas.

When she graduated from high school, she knew she wanted to continue colorguard in college.

“It was more of a comfortability thing, and I wasn’t quite ready to let it go . . . I didn’t want to just focus completely on nursing school and that’s all my life is,” Sleeper said.

As a part of Lovejoy’s colorguard, Sleeper was a lieutenant in her junior and senior years. In the Purple Pride Colorguard, she got the opportunity to be a part of the leadership team again and took on the role as one of the captains.

She has been a captain alongside Kalisha Fapohunda for the fall semester of 2024, the spring semester of 2025 and the fall semester of 2025. They were also captains alongside Lexi Carter their first semester in leadership.

“In this guard, Kalisha was the one that led me to leadership. I was kind of the go-with-the-flow kind of person. I’m not very stern and don’t raise my voice a lot, and Kalisha is really good at doing that,” Sleeper said. “She’s very assertive; she voices her opinions and is very headstrong. But that’s some of the good things about her, too. She’s always the person you can rely on.”

However, even alongside such dependable peers, her journey in the colorguard still had its ups and downs.

“It was a struggle the first year, and I heavily debated quitting colorguard because it was so strenuous,” Sleeper said. “The change of going from high school to college is not something that is talked about enough. It’s hard. It takes a severe amount of mental fortitude to be able to basically switch your mindset in a matter of months or else you’re failing your classes.”

Sleeper noted that although it’s completely normal to feel behind in your first school year, it’s important for students to find groups that “support you and that you can support as well” to help make the adjustment to college more manageable.

Beyond college itself, being a part of the Purple Pride Colorguard has made Sleeper a more patient and resilient person – characteristics that don’t go unnoticed, especially by Fapohunda from a co-captain perspective.

“Jordan is an amazing co-captain and consistently shows me how much I need her when leading a team,” Fapohunda said. “She thinks about things I would never consider and helps me ensure my head is still on my shoulders. Being a leader within the guard has taught her to open up to others and to put herself in others’ situations. She is so much better at connecting with others and being someone to represent the team.”

While Sleeper knew she wanted to do colorguard, there was a time where she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do in college in regards to her career.

“In high school I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do yet, but I knew I wanted it to be based around helping people,” Sleeper said. “So, I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s just try out nursing.’ Surprisingly, it stuck.”

Getting into the nursing program was a feat in itself, but through Health Education Systems Incorporated, she persevered. Now a student in the program, Sleeper recognizes how Tarleton has set her up for success in the future by always offering change.

“They make it very similar to how I would think a hospital would operate,” Sleeper said. “They really helped with essentially not being comfortable with the same thing, always having change, always having a new thing happening.”

Dr. Kendri Walls is one of Sleeper’s nursing professors and said she is always willing to help others.

“Jordan Sleeper is a remarkable student… I see in Jordan a strength of character, determination, strong faith in God and a compassion and kindness for people,” Walls said. “I know that she is excited to graduate and move on to the next chapter of her life. I am certain that she will be an excellent and compassionate nurse who will positively touch many lives in the future.”

Sleepers’ mother, Dana, said she’s also proud of Sleepers’ achievement, within her nursing pursuits and outside of it.

“It makes me proud to tell people about her,” she said. “She’s graduating, she’s getting a nursing degree, she’s going to be a RN, she’s going to get married, she was the captain of the colorguard and did really well in school. It’s great to be able to say that when you’re talking about your kids.”

Sleeper said she hopes to pursue her master’s in nursing in the next decade, but her first step forward is building a life with her fiancé, as she and Austin Perez will marry April 12, 2026.

Altogether, Sleeper has made a positive impact on the Purple Pride Colorguard and its participants as a captain, the nursing program as an eager-to-learn nursing student and Tarleton as a whole.

Overall, she said it’s been a good ride, leaving behind the message: “Don’t be afraid to do things that people find different,” for those navigating not only college but life itself.