Ervin

My journey has not been an easy one because of the many obstacles that I have encountered, yet overcoming these obstacles has shaped me into the independent person that I am today. My life journey started in Albania while my country was under the iron fist of a communist regime whose main belief was that only by being isolated from the rest of the world would we be able to preserve a truly Marxist nation. Fortunately, at the beginning of the '90s winds of change blew across Eastern Europe and Albania became a democratic country. As a young democracy the country was undergoing radical changes that made it very difficult to live in it. Looking for better opportunities, I immigrated to Italy as a teenager by following my family. Life in the new country was difficult; I had to sacrifice education in order to work and help my family. At the same time I always had the desire to pursue a higher education degree and eventually a career.

I saw the USA as a country of opportunity and this is why I chose to move here four years ago. To build my educational foundation, I chose La Guardia Community College as my starting point. The idea of pursuing a professional career that would allow me to help people in the moments they needed it the most steered me toward a degree as a Registered Nurse. Supporting a patient who is grateful for helping their condition improve or for being there to care for them holistically is a feeling that words cannot describe. After earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing, I would like to pursue a master’s degree to become a nurse practitioner with a concentration in cardiovascular diseases. I hope that in the course of my time at New York Needs You, I will be able to interact with and learn from professionals within the healthcare field to perhaps be inspired towards horizons that I never thought of. NYNY has a noble mission to build superior future professionals that will be an asset to any community that they join.