Summer — 2008

Jennifer Adams

Nursing

“All the nurses I’ve talked with told me they knew for a fact that UCLA hires more nurses from SMC than any other community college.”

When asked if SMC has been a pleasant surprise for her, Jennifer Adams responds, “Hugely. Hugely! I mean, it’s much harder than I thought it was gonna be. It’s crazy hard. But you almost have to want to fail to not make it, because they have so many systems in place in Nursing to help you succeed. They even have free tutoring for us. And they have an amazing lab set up to help you practice. Hazel Peters is the tutor who runs that place, and she’s just outstanding.”

Now on her way to a Master’s degree and a career as a Nurse Practitioner, Jennifer reports that progress was sometimes difficult to measure. “I had to do all my prereqs one at a time, because I had a full-time job where I was making really good money. But then I thought, ‘What are you doing with your life? What are you doing to help other people?’ So I first took an anatomy class—where you have to actually cut things open—and I absolutely loved it. And I thought, ‘Yep. For sure this is for me.’ And that’s because I began to understand how all the systems in the human body work together to keep equilibrium. One little system is just a tiny bit off, and suddenly everything gets totally screwed up!”

Jennifer volunteers one day a week in the oncology clinic at UCLA, and reports that the connection between her two colleges is pronounced and vital. “We do a lot of our clinicals at UCLA, and the instructors there are aware of the high standards we’re held to. They know how intense it is. And the SMC graduates there have been very successful. They even have a ‘bridge’ program where you can get your Master’s in two years. I have no doubt that I’ll be working at UCLA,” she adds, “because I’m already so… connected.”

Back