NUHP Scholars

Meet some of the current NUHP Scholars: 

 
SENIORS

Lauren Reifsnyder '12: Lauren has submatriculated to the Family Heath Nurse Practitioner program at Penn Nursing, is a Ben Franklin Scholar and is also pursuing a Spanish minor. Outside of coursework, she is involved in CityStep, a community-service dance group that teaches hip-hop in West Philadelphia. She is the External Liaison and a head teacher for CityStep and is also an executive board member for Penn's chapter of Chi Omega. Lauren spends free nights volunteering at Puentes de Salud, a bilingual clinic in South Philadelphia that serves Philadelphia's Latino immigrant community. She is from Mendham, New Jersey and was drawn to the field of nursing after being raised by an incredible nurse and realizing that nursing would be a perfect way to combine her passions of caring for children and vulnerable communities, health promotion, Spanish, and teaching. Lauren’s honors inquiry coursework involves looking at cardiac rehabilitation and women and how gender affects enrollment, adherence, and outcomes. Her honors project centers around school nurses and their involvement in child welfare issues. She was drawn to the NUHP program after taking a nursing honors class freshman year and having meaningful, thought-provoking discussions with other honors students. The NUHP program has been a great way to connect with the accomplished faculty, reflect and discover new passions, and make the most out of her four undergraduate years.

JUNIORS

Khrystyna Kerkush ’13:  In addition to the Nursing major, Khrystyna is pursuing a Global Health minor and is fascinated with the different healthcare practices around the world. Khrystyna states, “When I heard about the Honors Program, I knew that it would be a perfect way for me to integrate the nursing program with the topics I was learning about in my global health courses. The program gives me the ability to explore all of the different facets of nursing under the guidance of fantastic faculty and provides me with strong critical thinking and researching skills necessary for the nursing field.” She is eager to tackle the challenge of her Honors Project, which will compare nursing education and practices between America and Ukraine.

Amira Kipnis ’13: Amira’s interest in health care started at a young age. She has participated in a number of volunteer, personal, and work experiences that pointed her towards the field of nursing and to Penn in particular. At Penn, Amira was drawn to the Nursing Undergraduate Honors Program because of the academic challenges, the chance to work closely with the faculty and other students and the research opportunities. She became interested in health services research after taking a research methodology class and working on a research project in the HUP ED in the summer of 2011, and is continuing this research throughout the rest of her undergraduate career. She is looking forward to carrying out her own research project during her senior year as part of NUHP. She is interested in the area of health care policy and in investigating approaches for improving the quality of care for all patients and minimizing health disparities across the United States. She will be participating in the semester abroad program at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem during the spring of 2012, and will hopefully submatriculate into the Family Health MSN program. In her spare time, Amira enjoys community service activities, jogging, swimming, and going on long walks with friends and family.

Emily Watts ’13: When Emily originally came to Penn as a freshman, she enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences and had a career in medicine in mind. She ended up transferring into the School of Nursing during the fall of her sophomore year, after learning about the countless opportunities available within the field. Ultimately, she plans to become a pediatric nurse practitioner and is hoping to submatriculate into one of Penn’s MSN programs. Emily has always been incredibly interested in biomedical research, a passion that was initially fueled by a summer internship she held at the National Institutes of Health a few summers back. Outside of NUHP, she currently holds two research assistant positions within Penn’s community. Specifically, she works in the Department of Family and Community Health within Penn Nursing, and is also performing research in conjunction with the Department of Anesthesiology & Critical Care at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

SOPHOMORES

Marissa DeCesaris ’14: Marissa is a sophomore from Marlton, NJ, and in addition to the BSN degree, is pursuing a minor in Multicultural & Global Healthcare.  She spent the past summer working as a research assistant in the School of Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, and is currently helping her academic advisor to interview and enroll patients for one of her studies.  Marissa is a Peer Advisor in the School of Nursing, and recently became a tutor for Nursing 063. She enjoys mentoring younger students and helping them to find a path to nursing. Aside from nursing activities, she is also a captain for the women’s club rugby team, and volunteers with Penn Speaks for Autism.  She joined NUHP to connect with other highly motivated students, and to challenge herself academically. Marissa is also a Hillman Scholar, and can’t wait to live and work in New York City after she graduates.  She plans to pursue an MSN and PhD in the future as well.

Madelyn Keyser  ’14: Madelyn joined the honors program in Fall 2011 and is looking forward to pursuing her interests through the coursework. She holds a particular interest in the field of pediatric nutrition and cognitive development/mental health, and is currently seeking ways to follow that interest through research experience. Alongside the program, she is an active brother of Penn’s pre-healthcare fraternity, Alpha Iota Gamma. She also thoroughly enjoys dancing on the South Asian co-ed fusion team Penn Masti. Finally, her job at the Urban Nutrition Initiative has proven to be rewarding and fun.  In the classroom, she had a wonderful experience in her nutrition course freshman year, and is also enjoying her current experience in Anatomy and Physiology. She hopes to one day become a nurse practitioner and possibly earn a Ph.D., and looks forward to returning to California where she hopes to work at UCSF. She believes nursing is the perfect fit for her because she “finds miracles in the art of healing an individual holistically, and improving their overall emotional, physical and mental state of well-being.”

FRESHMEN

Carol Lee ’15: Carol graduated from The Westminster School of Atlanta in 2011, and is now a member of Penn’s Nursing Class of 2015. As a member of NUHP, she plans to challenge herself academically through the seminars offered each semester and mentally through the individual research project that she hopes to develop on the effects of music on healing.  She also intends to double minor in Psychology and Nutrition. Carol is currently a Copy Editor for the Daily Pennsylvanian, a member of the Student Nurses Association at Penn organization, and a member of Grace Covenant Church. As she continues to explore the opportunities at Penn, she would like to submatriculate into the Neonatal Nurse Practitioner program and continue her graduate studies at Penn’s School of Nursing.

Anna Morales ’15: As a new member of NUHP, Anna states, “I am beyond excited to begin my course of study in the Honors Program. The NUHP attracted me because it reached out and gave me the opportunity to accomplish goals that line up beautifully with my aspirations- to accelerate beyond the parameters of an already excellent education, and dive into a pool of exploration in an effort to find the areas of nursing that I am most passionate about. Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of nursing, I have found thus far, is that it is both an art and a science. As a passionate ballerina and nerdy science-lover, each day I find myself falling more and more in love with this profession that seems to tie together what I find to be the most profoundly amazing disciplines in the world.” In addition to her studies at Penn Nursing, Anna aspires to graduate with a minor in Hispanic Studies. On campus, she is a dancer for Penn Ballet, a tutor for the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project, and the CHOP Committee Leader of the new and developing chapter of Penn's Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC).