Isa G. Rodriguez Goenaga

I was excited to be in the first graduating nursing class at FIU. I was drawn to the environment and the excitement around being in that first class. I liked challenges, and I liked to be at the forefront of things. When I went to FIU, met the counselors, met with the faculty, and saw their vision, I wanted to be a part of it. Nursing was my passion. My mom was a cancer survivor when I was a young child, so I had great experiences with nurses. The nurses were the main caretakers, and I was forever grateful and in awe of their knowledge and care. I wanted to pass that along and be just like them. I wanted to emulate those kinds of caring people, so nursing became my path. I work with a wonderful group of nurses right now, and I'm very proud of the work that we do. I had great professors at FIU. There was a lot of focus on education and getting us ready for life outside of the school. I was the class president, so I was very involved. I was also the president of the Nursing Club. I started the first nursing school newsletter for the school. It was very interesting, and we had a great time doing that. It was called The Stethoscope. I pulled in a lot of my classmates to join me in putting this letter together, and I always had the support of the staff at school. The faculty were very supportive, and I remember a lot of my professors fondly. After I spent some time in clinicals, I was able to take leadership roles. Now, I'm the administrator for a very large orthopedic surgeon. It was all due to the experiences that I had at FIU. I grew academically in my knowledge, and I grew as a person through being given the opportunity to be the class president. I grew professionally, and I had a lot of confidence in my skills. That allowed me to go confidently out into the world, follow my passion, and grow my career.