Louise Margaret Tomas, 26, has been training to be a nurse most of her life. Her mother, a registered nurse, taught her how to care for her younger brother and sister when they would get sick.
“She really inspired me,” Tomas said.
Now, Tomas, president of the Nursing Club at LaGuardia Community College (LCC), will be truly following in her mother’s footsteps, as she and 71 other students graduated from LCC’s registered nursing program.
Tomas recognizes the importance of this first step. “Today is the day we are no longer accountable for just ourselves. Today we become accountable to the world,” she said as the final speaker of the graduation ceremony.
It was the program’s second largest graduating class and included 10 male graduates – the largest number of graduating men from the program.
“In a few short years your dreams have been realized, and now you are embarking on a wonderful profession where you will be helping others,” said Professor Patricia Dillion during the graduation ceremony.
The program at LaGuardia has become increasingly popular, and it has had to turn away three times the number of applicants it accepts each semester. About 97 percent of LaGuardia’s nursing graduates passed the national licensure exams. That is the highest rate of all the colleges in New York State.
Tomas said she chose to go to LCC because it was very close to where she lives, but also because she heard it was a very good program.
“I decided it sounded like a great challenge,” she said.
Tomas is on her way to a summer internship at Bellerose Hospital and is studying for her National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN). She is hoping to go to NYU for her bachelor’s degree in the spring.
“It’s a very surreal experience,” she admits. “For myself and classmates, we worked really hard to get here.”
