Sahuaro Alumni Carla Hernandez has made the Dean’s List for Nursing at the University Of Arizona. She graduated last year in 2016 with a perfect 4.0 GPA, and took AP classes throughout high school. When she first applied to the university, she was planning to become a Business major. However, after doing some research, she realized that business was not for her. She then made the tough decision of switching into nursing. She wanted a career  that would allow her to help many other people better their lives. At first she was not really confident being a Nursing major, but the more she learned about it, the more she could see herself doing it.

What inspired her to go up and above was that she is a pre-nursing major. “The nursing school at the U of A is very competitive… it motivates me to stay on top of my work and do the best I possibly can.”  Though sometimes it could be very mentally draining.  “The biggest challenge I faced was trying to create a balance in my life. I was constantly doing work and not really taking the time to just have fun and have a mental break.” She had to make a few sacrifices in order to make Dean’s List. “I think being a good student is all about trying to balance out school and other things like friends and family, but that’s something that is hard to do. I did get the chance to go out every once in awhile, I wasn’t going out every weekend because school is my focus.”

So, once in a while Hernandez would watch her favorite TV show, Grey’s Anatomy, to keep her mind of the stress. In her senior year of high school, Hernandez says she would binge watch Grey’s Anatomy a lot and still enjoys it . Though the show is nothing like real life, it is very entertaining.

I then asked Hernandez what would be a downfall of being a nurse. She stated that it would definitively be dealing with the loss of a patient. “Death isn’t something I’ve ever really dealt with, so if and when I become a nurse, that’s something I think will be hard for me.”

Her goal is to “help people be as comfortable as they can be and to bring happiness into their lives.” Hernandez has been just that. Even in high school, she constantly volunteered to help with things like organizing blood drives  and more. This spring break, she is also going to volunteer at the U of A’s Special Olympics – a competition for mentally and physically handicapped athletes.