Looking back on my four years at Ursuline, I am immensely grateful for the leadership opportunities I have had. At the beginning of my freshman year, my advisor encouraged me to join Student Nurses of Ursuline College (SNUC), as she was the faculty co-advisor. I remember walking into the first meeting and seeing all these senior nursing students. I was immediately impressed by their professionalism and level of involvement. At the end of my first year, I received an email from my advisor asking me to consider applying for a SNUC officer position, as she thought I would be a good fit. I immediately felt overwhelmed just thinking about it. I quickly responded, thanking her for reaching out but stating that I did not think I would have the time. However, in her response, she convinced me to apply anyway.
Now, I am so grateful that I chose to take her advice and apply for the position. Because of this advisor’s persistence in encouraging me to become more involved, my leadership experiences during college have been incredible. I had the opportunity to serve as SNUC’s Go Red Co-Chair (2020-2021), Go Red Chair (2021-2022), and President (2022-2023). Furthermore, I was elected as the Health Policy and Advocacy Director for the Ohio Student Nurses’ Association (OhSNA) for the 2022-2023 year. OhSNA is primarily run out of Capital University in Columbus, so most board members are Capital students, although there are a few officers from various Ohio schools. I am honored to be representing Ursuline as an officer of OhSNA.
Every year, Ursuline sends a few SNUC members to the National Student Nurses’ Association annual convention. In April 2022, I attended the 70thconvention in Salt Lake City. This year, I traveled to the 71stconvention in Nashville with OhSNA. I was also given the opportunity to go to OhSNA’s annual conference in October 2022, as well as several Greater Cleveland Nurses’ Association (GCNA) events over the past two years. For my BSN honors project, I chose to research the factors that influence student participation in professional nursing organizations, as I noticed that student involvement is significantly lacking overall. As a member of NSNA, I was able to send out my survey to registered NSNA members all over the country. Additionally, I was granted the opportunity to present my research at NSNA’s convention this year, and I was also asked to write a feature article focused on my findings for the April/May 2023 issue of NSNA’s membership magazine, Imprint.
If someone told me as a freshman that I would have all these opportunities, I would not have believed them. I am incredibly thankful for all that I have been able to achieve during my time at Ursuline, and I would encourage Ursuline students to become involved at the school, state, and national level. Your involvement as a student nurse is more important than you think; there is so much you can achieve before you even earn the degree. Always take advantage of opportunities that are presented to you, because there are so many benefits to becoming more involved in leadership positions, especially in the world of nursing.
