Photo: Caitlin Cunningham
Hometown: Seneca Falls, NY
Major: Nursing
Notable Achievements/Activities: Undergraduate Research Fellow; undergraduate representative, Connell School of Nursing’s Educational Policy Committee; PULSE volunteer (Bird Street After School Program, Greater Boston Food Bank, Boston Health Care for the Homeless); leader, First-Year Nursing Seminar; PULSE teaching assistant; dancer/choreographer, Boston College Full Swing dance team.
Mentors: David Manzo (PULSE); Melissa Pérez Capotosto, Anya Villatoro, Brandon Huggon (CSON).
Post-Graduation Plans: Nurse resident at Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Burn Center in Nashville.
Ganzon has emerged as a leader at the Connell School of Nursing (where every faculty member, she says, “has been amazing”), serving as a mentor in the First-Year Nursing seminar that is required of all Connell students and as a member of the school's Educational Policy Committee. The classroom and placement experiences she has had in the University’s PULSE program over the last four years have had a transformational effect on her. She realized a nursing degree would allow her to help people in a way she had never thought about.
What experience at BC had the most significant impact on you?
There has been nothing better at BC than PULSE. I’m so grateful for the experience. In class I learned about philosophers and theologians I had never studied. I had deep conversations with the people at my placement about the lived experiences of the kids [at Bird Street Community Center]. I still wanted to be a nurse after my first year in PULSE, but the kind of nursing I wanted to do changed. My volunteer experience at the foot clinic [at Boston Health Care for the Homeless] has been a great experience and opened my eyes to the kind of nursing I can do. I’m really not interested in working in an office. I want to work in the community and with those who are at risk. Here at BC, it’s easy to keep your blinders on, and I’ve been really grateful for the chance to take them off. The PULSE experience reminds me of my privilege, reminds me to be incredibly grateful, and shows me how much work there is to be done.
What have you learned as the undergraduate representative on the Connell School’s Educational Policy Committee?
It’ been really great. We review nursing courses syllabi. I never thought about what went on behind the scenes. It’s nice for me to see how much all the faculty think about this. I got to share my expertise about the First-Year Nursing Seminar, which I took as a freshman, and then served as a mentor for during my junior and senior years. I surveyed more than 100 students about their thoughts regarding statements on syllabi addressing topics such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, and financial resources. It’s bizarre to be the only 22-year-old on the panel, but I felt very supported. It was a great opportunity and I felt like a “woman at the table.”
Talk about your role as an Undergraduate Research Fellow for CSON Professor Ann Burgess.
I worked on an interdisciplinary team with people from BC Law, the School of Social Work, and the Connell School on compassionate release petitions for prisoners in Massachusetts who are very old or have a terminal illness. It’s a beautiful project that helps people have a lot more graceful end of their life. My role has been to translate the medical language in a prisoner’s chart to tell the team what’s going on with the person. I also suggest other prisoner assessments the legal team can do to get more data. I’ve done home visits with the social workers. Ann has been so great encouraging me to share my thoughts with the team.
What was one of your most memorable moments during your time at BC?
I learned about Full Swing at Admitted Student Day and signed up my freshman year at the Student Activities Fair. I did a choreographed dance in the spring. It was so much fun and I’ve met some of my best friends through it. I did a choreographed dance my sophomore year, and then COVID hit. This year, I danced and choreographed for the Full Swing team for Showdown [the annual dance competition sponsored by AHANA+ Leadership Council]. It was so much fun, just a blast! I had never seen so many people gathered in one place to celebrate student art. There was so much comradery back stage, everyone was cheering each other on and giving high fives.
What’s been the BC difference for you?
One of the best things about BC is how the Jesuit ideals flow into your everyday life. I went on Kairos in the fall. The fact that I—as a non-Catholic person—went on an extremely religious retreat, and that that is normalized, is one of the best parts about BC. Agape Latte is my church. These aspects of the BC culture create such a lovely, warm, gooey feeling inside of you. I didn’t expect it. I’m in love with the idea of being a “woman for others” and the Jesuit values. BC is honestly one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and not because of the buildings—which are arguably amazing—but because of the people here. I don’t think I’d be the person I am today if it weren’t for my peers and the faculty here. They better me every day.
Kathleen Sullivan | University Communications | May 2022