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The cover story of the Fall 2014 Illuminations newsletter features observations from numerous alumni—from the 1940s into the 2000s—about their student experience. Here’s a look back at how many of these and other alumni decided to pursue a nursing career.

Before attending ¹û½´ÊÓƵ, was nursing always your career choice? If not, what inspired you to change?

“Nursing was my goal. There were not many options for women in the 1940s. But I was most interested in a college education. My parents, who had only completed eighth grade, encouraged and supported me. I found ¹û½´ÊÓƵ College and its plans for a four-year baccalaureate nursing program. My biggest concern was the cost and I was delighted when [then-director] Mildred Montag provided assistance and I was awarded a four-year tuition scholarship. I graduated in 1949 and have been involved in nursing ever since.”

—

“I wanted to be an engineer or an architect. However, going to high school in the ’50s, I was told girls were not engineers….One summer, I was a candy striper at Nassau Hospital and that did it….I finally enjoyed my engineering desire in 1980, when I headed a team of nurses to install a very sophisticated hospital information system. I loved it!”

—Margaret (Dempsey) McCartney ’58

“Actually, before my senior year in high school, I really had no idea what I wanted to be ‘when I grew up.’…One day, out of the blue, I just knew that I wanted to be a nurse….I’m sure it had a lot to do with the fact that my uncle, who had lived with us after my dad died, had married a nurse recently and I really liked her and wanted to be just like her.”

—

“Initially, I was slated to be an English major and probably would have become a high school English teacher (or, looking back, a TV journalist). I took three years of Latin in high school, which helped with vocabulary and the derivatives of words. At Queens College, which I attended for one year, I realized Queens College and English might not be what I wanted and that science might be more of a challenge. And, between my mother having been an R.N. in World War II and my father a pharmacist, becoming a nurse seemed the right choice….With nursing as my major and the way prescriptions and medical orders were written in those days, I would get to use all that Latin after all!”

—

“At first I wanted to be a pediatrician but then, as I became older, in my senior year in high school, I decided nursing would be a better fit and a way to get direct patient care early on in my career. I remembered watching TV shows in the late ’60s and ’70s, where nurses were highlighted as main characters, for example, Julia, starring Diahann Carroll M*A*S*H‘s Margaret Houlihan and Nurse Dixie McCall on Emergency. The nurses were depicted as smart, dedicated and caring professionals who made the difference in the lives of others and colleagues. I too wanted to be that kind of healthcare professional, so I chose nursing.”

—

“I think I have always been interested in healthcare. My sister is a nurse and I read her books and then decided to get a summer job as a teenager at the local hospital. I started in housekeeping and central supplies and then moved into being a nursing assistant, and here I am 40-something years later—a nurse with a Ph.D.”

—Hrafn Oli Sigurdsson, Ph.D. ’99

“Nursing was always my career choice, ever since I was a little girl. My mom bought me a nursing costume for Halloween one year, and it was over after that.”

—Mary Courtenay (Vaupel) Steimer ’98

“I did not always want to be a nurse. When I was 14, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Ironically, she [died in] the very hospital I work in now….I became a nurse for her—she was a nurse and I wanted to carry on her legacy and keep her memory alive in my life in some way….Her death taught me empathy, and I chose nursing because I felt it would allow me to put it to good use.”

—Marie Podany ’09

“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a veterinarian, but at some point I decided I wouldn’t want to work with sick animals; I thought it would make me too sad. As a teenager, I decided to be a nurse. I knew I was interested in medicine and enjoyed working with people. For some reason, I thought this wouldn’t be as sad as sick animals—I was wrong.”

—Marlee LiButti ’10

—Compilation from interviews by Ela Schwartz, Andrea Maneri and James Forkan