This week’s Campus Celebrity is Therese Floyd, a 2008 alumna from Seton Hall University’s College of Nursing. A Jersey girl born and raised, Therese has fully embraced and lived out Seton Hall’s call to service, and community outreach. After graduating from nursing school, she moved to Tegucigalpa, Honduras for a year to serve the sick and poor through medical mission work. Her desire to serve has also led her to do mission work in Mexico, Nicaragua, and Nigeria. Therese returned to Seton Hall in 2013 to begin her Masters in Nursing, Pediatric Nurse Practioner. She currently works as a pediatric nurse at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital in Paterson, N.J. Therese will soon be honored by the Seton Hall College of Nursing at the 2015 Margaret C. Haley Awards, where she will receive the Nelson Aquino Humanitarian Award.
Catching this busy alumna for an interview was no easy task! Luckily, Her Campus got in touch with her right as she was leaving her shift at the hospital!
Her Campus (HC): How do you look back on your time as a Seton Hall undergrad?
Therese Floyd (TF): It was an amazing four years where I experienced growth as a student and in learning to be a nurse, but I also experienced personal growth, focusing on who I was and what I wanted to do.
HC: How has Seton Hall shaped you into the nurse that you are/ strive to be?
TF: Seton Hall’s philosophy of servant leadership is integrated into the classes, clinicals and professors of the nursing program where the idea to lead is to be a servant. In a profession where you lead by example, learning how to be a servant to the patients is the foundation to becoming a successful nurse.
HC: What was one of your favorite nursing classes?
TF: Culture and Health, which is funny seeing as I moved to Honduras after graduation.
HC: In your own words, what is a nurse?
TF: A nurse is someone who sees the whole of a person. They see that a person is not just a patient number. A nurse makes it his or her job to be an advocate for the patient, and bring them to a place of healing and a place of peace.
HC: Any words of encouragement for the current nursing students?
TF: You can do it! It is all worth it. It will be the four hardest years of your life, but when you have finally reached the hospital, and you have your first patient, you will never regret the number of hours you spent studying.