Denise Alpanian

Student

“I actually moved here from San Francisco for SMC’s Nursing program. Its reputation is right up there at the top.” 

“I couldn’t go to school full time when I began,” explains Denise Alpanian of her long haul to study at SMC to become a nurse. “And then when I started my anatomy class, I was pregnant and couldn’t be around all the formaldehyde and other chemicals.” But class by class, Denise kept up with the program at her own pace and has only one semester left to go.

“I’ve actually got a job lined up when I graduate,” she says with real enthusiasm. “I’m gonna be working in labor and delivery at a delivery hospital. I eventually want to be a midwife, because hospitals are so expensive that a lot of people are having their babies at home. And that’s a good thing.”

Denise actually moved from her native San Francisco “because I’d heard that SMC had a great reputation and the waiting list was only one year. I’ve never regretted it. I mean, I love my Nursing teacher, Miss Adler. She’s always positive, she makes me enthused about Nursing, and she’s the sweetest lady you’ll ever meet. She’s a great teacher and a very positive and organized person.”

Denise stresses that the SMC Nursing program is a rigorous one, but that help arrives from your fellow students. “Last semester we formed a study group because we had a really tough class. And without each other’s help, a lot of us wouldn’t have made it.” But Denise is making it, heading into her new career, and feeling successful. “For me, success means accomplishing something that I worked hard for and feeling good about myself.”

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