Crystal Elizabeth Leguizamon

At the time, FIU Nursing had a veteran's nursing program. It was a one-year accelerated program that recognized military veterans who had medical backgrounds. There weren't any other schools in the nation that had that program, so I chose to go to FIU Nursing. I did my clinical rotations with my pediatric clinical instructor. I was dreading doing my pediatric rotation because I had always worked with adults. She completely changed my entire career path because I absolutely fell in love with pediatrics. I'm now a certified pediatric nurse, and I've worked in many children's hospitals and in multiple ICU settings. I actually ended up working with my pediatric clinical instructor once I graduated too. I had a great experience in the program because I got to go to nursing school with other veterans, which I really appreciated. One of my counselors and a couple of my instructors were veterans as well. It was nice to be around like-minded adults who had similar backgrounds in medicine. I had a good group of people, and that helped me grow a lot.