“My success belongs to everyone who helped build my journey. It all started in a classroom at Monroe.”
Trina Nurse brought her three children with her to take a final exam at Monroe University. She spent the entire hour-and-a-half commute from Brooklyn to the Bronx worried that she would be turned away at the door. Instead, she was met with support that helped shape her educational journey.
“The professor was extremely flexible and accommodating, and those are the stories that really stick out because I recognize that, as a mom and a working professional, I needed a community and a network that was able to see me,” Nurse said.
Nurse’s path to higher education was anything but linear. Years earlier, a high school teacher showed up at her home in Brooklyn, knocking on the door and telling her to come to school. As a young mother, Nurse said she considered dropping out, but her teacher refused to let her.
From there, Nurse faced many challenges, including homelessness and a high-risk pregnancy with her fourth child. None of these obstacles deterred her from prioritizing her education. During the semester she gave birth, Nurse had to take time off, and the Monroe community was there to support her.
“That semester didn’t go as expected, but I had an advisor talk to me, and I was able to bounce right back even though I had just given birth a few weeks prior,” Nurse said.
Monroe’s advisors and professors made it easier for Nurse to continue her education while caring for a newborn, raising three other children, and working. At Monroe, Nurse studied criminal justice and planned to become a correctional officer. Although she ultimately pursued a different career path, she said she continues to use the skills she learned at Monroe in her everyday life.
Today, Nurse works as an Administrative Education Officer for New York City Public Schools, managing a budget of more than $12 million. After graduating from Monroe, she went on to earn two master’s degrees and a doctorate from Columbia University. Nurse credits much of her success to the foundation and support she received at Monroe.
“My success doesn’t only belong to me; it belongs to everyone who added their little brick to my life or my journey, whether it was through mentorship, an internship, or academics,” Nurse said. “These were all stepping stones that started in a classroom at Monroe.”
