Cindy was my NCLEX tutor for OB and peds rotation; she prioritized meeting with my study group every week to go over concepts we did not understand and was always available when we would send her questions throughout the week.

However, I wanted to nominate her because of the impact she had on my nursing journey last term. I had lost a close family friend and was emotional about it. I had friends ask if I could do nursing if I was already emotional over one person passing, which in turn made me question myself. I called Cindy one day and broke down to her, questioning everything that I had been through and how I did not know if I could not be emotional when losing a patient. I am so grateful to Cindy because she quickly shut those thoughts down and told me about personal stories of when she, too, had gotten emotional with her patients. Her words meant a lot coming from someone I consider a mentor and who I aspire to be like. Not only did she shut the ideas down, but she encouraged me to keep going and told me things she saw that were going to make me a great pediatric nurse.

The following weeks were hard because we had proctor and final, but Cindy pushed me to keep going and do my best because she believed in me, and because of that, I believed in myself. I will forever be grateful to her, and she will forever push me to be the best nurse I can be. Cindy has done this for me and many other students, so I would like to nominate her and thank her for everything she has done.