Jonas Scholar Speakers at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing Celebration

On Tuesday, March 21, 2017, the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing hosted a Scholarship Celebration to honor their Scholarship Donors, such as the Jonas Center, and Student Scholars. Two Jonas Scholars spoke as part of the program: Shani Irby, MSN, ANP-BC, BMTCN, 2016-2018 Jonas Nurse Leader DNP Scholar and Mary Christine (Christy) Jared, MS, RN, PMHNP-BC, 2016-2017 Barbara Jonas Psychiatric-Mental Health PhD Nursing Scholar. We are pleased to share their speeches (below):

Shani Irby, MSN, ANP-BC, BMTCN
2016-18 Jonas Nurse Leader DNP Scholar
NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

My name is Shani Irby and I am a practicing ambulatory oncology adult bone marrow transplant nurse practitioner. I’m delighted to be here to represent my fellow talented New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing Advanced Standing Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students. The scholarships I have received as a student at NYU Meyers have been essential in helping me to achieve my career goals since 2003, when I was a freshman here. I am a current Jonas Nurse Leader Scholar and I am truly grateful to the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare for their generosity and belief in me. Receiving scholarships help to ease some of the stress that we all face when working full-time and pursing higher education.

I’m fortunate to have a job I love that is challenging, but extremely rewarding. Through the DNP Program at NYU Meyers and with the help of the scholarships I’ve received, I see myself making a greater positive impact on those suffering from hematological malignancies that require a stem cell transplant, and impacting their loved ones through teaching, research, and direct clinical care.

Lastly, I would like to leave you with a quote that motivates me by American screenwriter and director Jennifer Lee; “be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.”

Thank you all for listening to me tell you about what sets my soul on fire, and congratulations to my peer scholarship recipients.

Mary Christine (Christy) Jared, MS, RN, PMHNP-BC
2016-17 Barbara Jonas Psychiatric-Mental Health PhD Nursing Scholar
NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

Good Evening. I am excited and honored to be here today as a 2016-2017 recipient of the Barbara Jonas Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing Scholarship and to share with you what receiving this award means to me. As a PhD student interested in the relationship between early life adversity and health outcomes in adults, with the intent of developing holistic intervention programs focused on the uniqueness of individuals, I am thrilled to say that this scholarship has already begun to propel that work in many ways.

It has provided me the chance to learn from the top nursing leaders in the country, to network with fellow doctoral students in my field and in other disciplines, and to foster relationships with policy experts, nurse executives and other nursing scholars. I see all of these opportunities as leading to tremendous growth – as they are both an acknowledgement of and an investment in me and my fellow scholarship recipients in the Meyers PhD program – an investment to expand our careers as nurse scientists and to develop new knowledge that directly and positively influences health policy, the health of our nation and that of other countries around the world.

The Barbara Jonas Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing scholarship is also very meaningful because it acknowledges the key role that psychiatric-mental health nurses, women’s health nurses and Nurse Practitioners have in providing high quality, comprehensive health care to patients and their families and to those who are often the most vulnerable, stigmatized and neglected. It gives credence to the critical connection between mental and physical health – and highlights the crucial need for our profession to continue to conduct research, educate new nurses and to care for patients in the wide-ranging and inclusive manner that is unique to nursing so that we can achieve better outcomes together with our health care colleagues and take the lead in creating positive change.

I thank the Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare for this honor. And I thank my PhD Nursing Student Colleague, Ms. Gladys Vallespir-Ellett for her contribution to the content of this speech.