“You’ll learn to appreciate everything that is presented to you, whether it is concepts you need to know or the worst smelling, foul thing you have ever looked at. You’ll learn to love it all,” said Steven Pham, a first year nursing student, when asked about the worst part of his major. To him, as bad as his studying gets, it’s all good.
Pham was inspired to go to nursing school by his girlfriend’s mom, who was the one who introduced the career path to him. After crawling through the cumbersome prerequisites during his first semesters at the U, he was finally accepted into the College of Nursing. How did he feel when he found out about his acceptance? “I was ecstatic!…Then I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to celebrate. Excitement got me hungry.”
Now that he’s about half way into his first semester of nursing school, Pham is buried under the workload of 16 credit hours. Pharmacology is his most intensive course, but he welcomes the work with a positive attitude. “Pharm becomes your life. Ask any first semester nursing student,” he said.
Pham is part of the small class of 2014. The best part about nursing school so far, he said, is knowing he will graduate from one of the best nursing schools in the state and that he will have every single class with the same cohort of 64 students until graduation.
When he reaches graduation and gets that diploma, he hopes to work on the floor as an “awesome nurse.” If he continues to succeed, he may consider graduate school as well. Either way, Pham’s attitude, determination, and fun spirit are welcoming and comforting, and he knows he’s in the right college.