Stephanie Ponce hurried back to the hotel room she shared with Anayeli Tellez. It was summer 2021, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the two young women were on assignment as traveling COVID testers. Although they had only met a few months before, they’d bonded over their shared backgrounds and circumstances: both grew up near Yakima, Washington, and were close to their families. Both had become interested in medicine by translating for their families in the hospital as children. Additionally, both Tellez and Ponce had great grades and had completed the prerequisite classes to enter nursing school, but kept getting rejected from the handful of highly competitive programs in their area. Ponce had received an email from another nursing program that evening. When she reached the room, she quickly opened the email — only to see another denial.
“I felt really lost,” said Ponce. “I didn’t know what my next step was.” After crying together, Ponce and Tellez decided it was time to start applying to programs out of state. They pulled up NursingCAS, a centralized application system for nursing programs, and started browsing schools. As they scrolled through their options, Union caught their attention. They didn’t know much about Nebraska or Adventists, but an accredited BSN program with a nearly perfect first-time NCLEX-RN pass rate and no wait list sounded great.
“We applied to Union that night,” said Tellez. “And a couple of days later, we got acceptance letters and just decided to go for it.”
Ponce and Tellez drove to Lincoln, where they rented an apartment together and started the Nursing Program at Union Adventist University that fall. Ponce said, “It was crazy because I had only known Anayeli for two months, and we were like ‘Let’s move to Nebraska together.’ Now, we’re best friends.”
The transition away from family and friends was difficult at first, but Tellez and Ponce soon found their stride. Tellez said, “I remember that first semester was so hard for me, but just knowing how supportive my professors were made everything 100 percent better. I was impressed by how welcoming everybody from the Nursing Program was and how much they cared about us.”
“This school is a very close-knit community,” said Ponce. “For me, coming from out of state and not wanting to leave my family, Union made the process of starting a new program really easy. Time goes by so fast, and I still can’t believe that I’m already graduating.”
Tellez and Ponce plan to return home to southern Washington. Ponce plans to work as a nurse in Yakima and eventually return to school to become a family nurse practitioner. Tellez is also planning to work as a nurse in Washington then earn her doctorate in nursing and open her own clinic.
“When you have a goal or something you’ve really wanted for so long, you don’t let anything get in your way,” said Ponce. “Even though it can be tough, it’s all worth it.”
Tellez agrees, adding, ”I think the best decision I ever made was leaving home to come to Union.”
