Jennifer Rebecca Wilcox (Moore), BSN

I transferred from Penn State after two years. I chose FIU because it was the best school for nursing, and my future husband was going to school there. Two of my children graduated from FIU since then, so we are an FIU family. There weren't a lot of nurses with bachelor's degrees back then, so I was way ahead of the game. I was more prepared as a nurse than some of the other nurses who went to different programs. I moved up really fast because of my bachelor's degree and how prepared I was - I was a charge nurse within a year of graduating. A year later, I was assistant director of nursing. I'm grateful for the affordable education that prepared me to be the nurse that I am. I've influenced my second oldest child to become a nurse, and he married a nurse. He's been diagnosing people since the third grade - he told me he thought a kid on the bus had liver problems because his eyes were yellow. Higher education broadens your mind. I thought I was smart and worldly before FIU, but going to school there blew me away. I was able to meet people from different cultures and it blew my mind. The advice I would give to a new student at FIU is to soak it all up and enjoy your time there. Learn as much as you can and stay home unless you can afford to move out on your own.