School of Nursing Class of 2016 Graduate Honorees
School of Nursing congratulates the Graduate Distinguished Achievement honorees for 2016. These students will be honored at the Graduate Recognition Reception on Wednesday, May 25th.
Megan Scott, GMSN
Megan Scott demonstrated superior written and verbal communication skills as evidenced by a written assignments and class discussion. She was a motivated and hard worker always open to new challenges and was well prepared for class. Megan volunteered as Teaching Assistant for the Community/ Public Health Nursing Theory course. She met with students in person and via emails to discuss assignments. Students frequently commented on Megan’s helpful, approachable, responsive and overall generous attitude. Her technical and organizational skills were an asset and she worked with students with enthusiasm and ease. She has a practical, straightforward and good-natured style of communication. Megan also volunteered to be a Research Assistant with Dr. Rebecca Carabez and worked on data analysis of interviews with nurse key informants regarding nurses’ knowledge of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender health. Their work has yielded three published articles and three more in the process. Megan has participated in three presentations at professional conferences that include Western Institute of Nursing (April 2015 and 2016) and GLMA:Health Care Professionals Advancing LGBT Equality Portland, OR Sept 2015. Currently, Megan works as a Clinical Nurse in Pediatric Ambulatory Care at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.
Maria Christina Fernandez, RN-MSN/FNP
Maria Christina Fernandez was born and raised in the Philippines. As a teen, she briefly thought about going to medical school. However, her desire to have a closer relationship with patients resulted in a change to nursing. She came to the United States alone at the age of 19 to attend nursing school in the Midwest. In addition to receiving scholarship funding, she worked two jobs as CNA and Librarian to realize her dream of becoming a nurse. After graduation, she paid it forward by assisting her sister to attend college in the Philippines. She continues her sponsorship of students in the Philippines through a charity called "Pusong Pinoy" or "Heart of a Filipino". She also counsels International Students on the brink of giving up and returning home. Christina’s heart exemplifies the heart of the charity. She came to SF State to attend Graduate school and realize her dream of becoming a nurse practitioner. Christina has been working as an oncology nurse for many years at Stanford Hospital caring for the sickest cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. She recently wrote a proposal for a poster, "Efficacy of Low Microbial Diet in Immunocompromised Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Patients", that was accepted for presentation at Sigma Theta Tau International conference in Cape Town, South Africa July 21-25, 2016. She is at the top of her class academically in both classroom and clinical rotation. She is calm, empathetic, and caring, always making time for any classmate asking for assistance.