Dr. Jennifer Bruno

My grandmother wasn't a nurse, but she had these old medical books that she kept. Whenever something wrong with one of us, she would just pull out those books. I remember grabbing and looking at them because they always caught my attention. It was my calling, and I was the first one in my family to go to college. I transferred to FIU from Miami-Dade College after I received my associate's degree. The campus was beautiful. I didn't want to leave Miami, and I liked the school. I wanted the autonomy to be a nurse practitioner because I didn't want to only take orders. I was really taught hands-on nursing during clinicals at Miami-Dade College, but the BSN Program at FIU dealt with more textbook stuff. It had a lot more to do with policies and administration rather than clinical learning. I met wonderful people and grew as a person through networking because I was exposed to a lot of specialties. I learned about policies and how to effectively make changes. I just finished my doctoral degree last year, which was a personal goal of mine. My advice for students is that there are going to be times when they want to quit, but they have to take it one day at a time. They'll feel so accomplished once they finish, and they'll really love it.