Guests enjoy fun and fellowship at spring social
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More than 50 alumni, students and faculty gathered for the UIC College of Nursing Alumni & Student Spring Social, held at Bracket Room in Chicago on Mar. 19.
Among the guests was Angelica Porras, who earned her BSN at the Urbana campus in 2014 and immediately entered the master’s program in Chicago, graduating in 2016. Porras is now a clinical nurse manager at Northwest Community Healthcare.
“I’ve been wanting to come to an [alumni] event,” she said, “and I finally made it.”
Porras commented on the choice to go straight from the BSN program into the MS program: “It was pretty intense, because I was also working [at NCH] while I was getting my master’s.” But the hard work paid off in her now advanced role where she supervises dozens of fellow nurses.
Dean Terri Weaver was on hand to address those gathered. She noted some recent college news, including our graduate programs’ rise in U.S. News rankings and the impending induction of professor Shannon Zenk into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame. She also noted that seven UIC Nursing students would soon be presenting their research at the Midwest Nursing Research Society conference, including senior Brooklyn Hastings, who was happily present to accept a round of applause.
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UIC College of Nursing Alumni Board president Patricia Lewis, PhD ’93, also delivered brief remarks.
“We hope you’ll continue to be engaged with the college wherever you go,” said Lewis, “and we hope you’ll support the college as well.”
She encouraged the group to embrace a healthy habit of giving, saying, “I give because of what I got.” She made her first gift to the college, just $10, in the year after she graduated and has given consistently since, she said.
Lewis also touted the alumni mentoring program, currently in development, in which seasoned alumni will be matched with younger alumni to be a source of professional advice and encouragement.
The evening was rounded out by raffling off three fun gift baskets.
The next all-alumni event is REUNION 2019, happening Oct. 12 at the Chicago campus. Attendees will get to hear from a panel of alumni nurse leaders and take part in the official ribbon-cutting of the new M. Christine Schwartz Experiential Learning and Simulation Laboratory. We’ll also confer 2019 Alumni Awards and honor all those celebrating a milestone year, with medallions for 25-year and 50-year alumni.