UCI Giving Day 2021

Invest in Future Nurses

Isabella, a third-year undergraduate student at the UCI Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, understands the feeling of gratitude. As a recipient of last year’s Giving Day community sponsored Nursing Tote, Isabella experienced the life changing moment of receiving a donor’s gift. The tote, filled with all of the essential equipment needed for success in Fundamentals Lab, prepares her to learn the vital life skills that will be the cornerstone of her future nursing practice.

For Isabella, the gift represents more: Someone in the community believes in her potential and supported her dream of becoming an emergency room nurse. Isabella remembers the moment she was given her tote.

“I was speechless. My dad was temporarily laid off from both of his jobs during the pandemic. So, finding out a donor sponsored my tote left me feeling so relieved, like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders!”

Isabella’s nursing tote was one of 96 sponsored by community members during Giving Day 2020.Read more of Isabella’s story below.

Isabella is one of 70 Prelicensure students who need your support on Giving Day, April 28. Please consider a gift to our Fund for Excellence which will immediately assist with the following urgent needs of our students. 

• Technology ($720 to $2,000) - Laptops for remote learning, tablets for note-taking, online study applications and virtual review groups
• Study Aids ($250) - Books, apps and Kaplan review courses to reinforce curriculum content and prepare for their registered nursing exams
• Professional Attire & Equipment ($200 to $1,000) - White coat, scrubs, shoes, stethoscope and ophthalmoscope
• Nursing Totes ($125) - Essential equipment a new nursing student needs for the first day of Fundamentals Lab 

A gift of any amount truly makes a difference today as we come together to make a collective impact. Your generosity will help our students succeed and invest in our community’s future nurses. 

Did You Know?

• When you invest in students like Isabella, you also invest in our future healthcare workforce
• Over 80% of our nursing students stay local upon graduation
• Nursing continues to be the most trusted profession for the 20^th consecutive year (Gallup)
• More than 1 million new registered nurses will be needed by 2022 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Your gift will change the life of a nursing student

Student Story

On top of the rigorous curriculum, the school year challenged Isabella and her classmates in other ways as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened. The state shutdown required a rapid evacuation and a transition to remote learning. 

Nursing students faced new challenges such as family members being laid off who supported their education and expenses, learning remotely from home where technology was not optimal, and reduced clinical experiences due to hospitals closing to student learners. Despite the many challenges, Isabella and her classmates embraced all opportunities to learn remotely and gain clinical experience. Recently, they are administering vaccines at the UCI Bren Center to our ever-grateful community members.  

Over the course of their educational journey to becoming a nurse, Isabella and her classmates will attend lectures, practice skills in lab and spend time directly with patients. They will also volunteer in their communities, join service-oriented organizations and secure leadership roles in pursuit of their career goals.

Despite the many challenges she faced this year, Isabella maintained her unwavering passion for the nursing profession with the underlying motivation to be “the light in a time of darkness.” Deeply rooted in her faith-based community with a focus to serve to others, Isabella confesses, 

“The nursing profession encompasses everything I believe I am called to do: to serve wholeheartedly, to expect nothing in return, to be compassionate in all situations and to think less of my own needs so that I may think more of others.”

Isabella administers a long awaited COVID-19 vaccine injection to a grateful community member in February 2021.