Five nursing students who are recipients of Conway Scholarships at The Conway School of Nursing at The Catholic University of America were interviewed on Sept. 12, 2024 on the day when the classrooms, labs and clinical nursing spaces of the school’s new building were blessed and dedicated. They reflected on what drew them to nursing, what they think of their school’s new state-of-the-art facility, and their dreams for the future.
Asked about the students now learning at the new Conway School of Nursing building, Marie Nolan, the school’s dean, said, “Thanks to the teaching and mentorship of our nursing faculty and the strong Catholic mission of the entire university, our students see each patient and family member entrusted to their care as a child of God and their nursing career as doing God’s work on earth.”
‘A foundation to be the best nurse I can be’
Megan Do, a 20-year-old junior and Conway Scholar in Catholic University's Conway School of Nursing from Seattle, said she didn’t decide to pursue nursing studies until later in high school. Do said she was inspired by the example of her immigrant grandparents.
“My grandparents brought their eight kids from Vietnam after the war, and they worked really hard and sacrificed so much to be successful contributing members of their community. So growing up, I knew I wanted to follow in their footsteps and not only make them proud, but make all their sacrifices worthwhile,” she said.
Do noted that, “I knew I wanted to pursue a career where I could use my talents and skills to help others, but I didn’t figure out what that was until high school, when my grandparents grew older and I would spend each weekend with them, helping to care for them. That experience was new and uncomfortable at first. Through that, I realized there was so much joy and fulfillment in caring for others, and I saw nursing as the best way to do that.”
Reflecting on the Conway School of Nursing’s new building and state-of-the-art classrooms, labs and clinical nursing learning areas, Do said, “I’m really grateful for it. I think it’s so inspiring to be in such a nice place, where I know the education I’m receiving is top-notch. Being here, I know I’ll have the foundation to be the best nurse I can be in the future.”
Do, who is participating in the nursing school’s Certificate in Spanish for Health Care Program, is considering a career in community health nursing or global health nursing. She said part of the reason why she’s working toward that certificate “is because I’ve seen how my knowledge of Vietnamese culture and language can help me bridge barriers and truly understand and advocate for my patients. No matter what specialty I go into, I know I want to take this perspective with me.”
The nursing student said her Catholic faith gives her a foundation for her future career, and her faith has grown stronger while she has been studying at the Conway School of Nursing.
“My faith since coming to Catholic University has grown so much,” Do said. “In nursing, you really have to know your ‘why’ and what grounds you, and for me, that’s my faith.”
She noted how a teacher told her class that to be a good nurse for Christians means being “the hands of Christ” to patients and seeing the dignity of every person.
“So for me, my Catholic faith is the foundation for my nursing practice and wanting to provide the most compassionate care to my future patients,” Do said.
‘Seeing God’s design in every person’
Felipe Avila, a 20-year-old junior and Conway Scholar from Las Vegas in Catholic University’s Conway School of Nursing, said his Catholic faith and his pro-life convictions drew him to nursing.
Avila, who received training and worked as a pharmacy technician while in high school, said, “I’ve always had an affinity for the pro-life movement, and I wanted to expand my advocacy for patient care, and I saw nursing as an avenue for that.”
The new state-of-the-art facility for the Conway School of Nursing at Catholic University is “fantastic,” he said, noting that nursing students there can expand their skill sets by practicing on mannequins in simulation labs. “It’s the real deal of what we’ll see in clinical practice as nurses,” he said.
Avila said he is thinking about going into obstetrics, “mixing my passion for pro-life with nursing.” That branch of medicine specializes in the care of women during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum.
His Catholic faith “is the principal motivation that got me into health care, seeing God’s design in every person,” Avila said, adding, “I want to be a part of healing and protecting God’s creation.”
‘This is my place’
Ndella Fall, a 20-year-old junior and Conway Scholar from Bowie, Maryland, in Catholic University’s Conway School of Nursing, said her family inspired her to become a nurse.
“I grew up in a really big family. I was raised in an environment where everybody takes care of each other,” she said, adding her family’s inspiring example helped her “figure out what I could do with the rest of my life, and (that was) to take care of people.”
The new facility for the Conway School of Nursing is “amazing,” Fall said. “You can really feel a sense of community as a nursing major. Now when you step in the building, you can feel this is my school, this is my place.”
Fall is considering pediatric nursing as a career. “I’ve been drawn to children for a long time. My mom runs a preschool,” she said.
Her Muslim faith, Fall said, goes hand-in-hand with her future nursing career. “My faith is really centered around service to other people… doing things for people every day.”
‘A community of excellence’
Emma Ballard, a 20-year-old junior and Conway Scholar in Catholic University's Conway School of Nursing from Upton, Massachusetts, worked as a certified nursing assistant while she was in high school.
“I worked during and after COVID, mostly with the elderly population,” Ballard said.
Reflecting on her motivation for becoming a nurse, she said, “I think being able to advocate for patients and care for them at the most vulnerable times is not only one of the most important jobs, but one of the most fulfilling jobs.”
Ballard, who is Protestant, is keeping an open mind about what area of nursing she will pursue as a career. Last year, she spent a semester abroad studying in Australia, and she said it’s great to be back on Catholic University’s campus and in the nursing school’s new building.
“I think it’s amazing. Walking in, it fosters a community of excellence” for the nursing students there, she said, adding, “I think being able to practice these skills in such a state-of-the-art facility is the best way to prepare us for clinical practice.”
Ballard said she appreciates being “with other nursing students in such a nice facility, and (being) with staff and my peers who are supportive, but also push us to be the best nurses we can be.”
A legacy of serving others
Noah Gomes, a 21-year-old senior and Conway Scholar in Catholic University’s Conway School of Nursing who is from Beltsville, Maryland, said the example of two of his aunts who are nurses and the caring legacy of his late grandmother have inspired him to study nursing and pursue that as a career.
“Growing up, I always wanted to get into health care… I really loved medicine,” said Gomes, whose family attends St. Camillus Parish in Silver Spring.
After participating in the science and technology program at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, he considered a career in science, but he decided that he could be impact society as a nurse.
Gomes noted that both of his aunts are nurses and graduates of Catholic University’s nursing school. One of his aunts has worked as a nurse at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, and the other has worked as a family nurse practitioner with the U.S. Public Health Service.
“They’re always helping others,” Gomes said, adding that their selfless example inspired him. “I decided nursing was what my aunts were doing for so long, and (in that career), right out of college, I can start helping people.”
Gomes’s grandparents brought their family to the United States from Bangladesh, and his career path was also shaped by stories he heard about his grandmother, who died when he was 2 years old. “I heard she was always a compassionate person, helping others before herself.”
Like his fellow nursing students, he praised the new Conway School of Nursing facility, noting that students there have been receiving a first-class education from the health care professionals teaching them, and now “our building is meeting that (same) standard.”
Gomes currently is commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Public Health Service.
“After graduation, I have a two-year contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. I’ll be a correctional officer nurse,” said Gomes, who spoke about how that work coincides with the ideals of his faith and the nursing profession. “As a federal correctional officer, I’m helping an underserved population. The incarcerated are people at the end of the day. They’ve been judged for their actions, but at the end of the day, they need medical help. They’re all God’s people.”
