July 22, 2013

“I want my happiness to spawn from my career and that is one of the many goals I strive to achieve,” said freshman Health Services Administration (HSAD) student Freddy Perez.

Perez is one of the first non-nursing students accepted into the Macy Undergraduate Leadership Fellows Program (MULFP), now in its second year at the College of Nursing and Health Professions. MULFP is a voluntary for-credit leadership certificate program designed for undergraduate nursing or health professions students in which they develop leadership skills and enhanced leadership capacity and efficacy.

“I feel honored to have been selected for this program and I plan on giving it my all to make sure I can contribute to the success of the program, as well extract everything that is valuable for my own success,” Perez said. He is excited to start the program and considers it highly motivating to be with a group of students who have all demonstrated exceptional talent and achievement.

The skills Perez gains from the HSAD Program and Macy Leadership Fellowship will help him realize his dream to one day become an administrator at a children's hospital. “I have close to 30 first cousins and had the privilege of watching many of them grow up,” Perez said. “I was always surrounded by children and whenever I could I would volunteer in my hometown's children's camp. As a result of this exposure to children, it made me realize that I would love to care for them in the sense that one day I could be responsible for seeing that their health care is delivered in the best ways possible.”

Perez hopes that, as a children’s hospital administrator, he will be able to provide patients and their families with a safe, enjoyable and effective health care setting.

Perez is very close to his family in New Jersey. Knowing that he would have to move out and not see them on a regular basis was a “massive change” for him as a first year student. However, Perez found himself right at home in the College of Nursing and Health Professions’ Learning Community. “Being in the Learning Community had a tremendous impact on how I adjusted to my new home away from home. I was surrounded by students who, like me, have an interest in health care,” he said. The CNHP Learning Community allows students from varying majors in the College to live together for their freshmen year so they can help each other adjust to college life both academically and socially.

“What I think was most beneficial was the fact that we all shared a passion for helping others. It almost became a sort of a bonding string,” he said. “Sharing this commonality made me feel more comfortable in my new setting and it made me feel part of a larger family.”