From the time that she was a child, Dierdre Corrigan knew she wanted to become a nurse.
Now the Williston Park resident is fulfilling that aspiration, in her third semester of a four-semester program in nursing at Queensborough Community College.
“I always seemed to be drawn to it. It’s one of those things I’ve always been fascinated with,” she said. “I always wanted to help people.”
For Corrigan, that impulse runs in the family: two of her aunts work as nurses.
Deirdre is looking forward to applying what she’s learning in the virtual hospital in the OB/GYN wing at New York Hospital Queens.
“I’ve watched live births, spent time in a baby nursery, wrapped newborns and helped new moms,” she said.
She said she plans to continue her nursing studies at a four-year school and then gain work experience in the emergency room of a New York City hospital.
Attending Queensborough on a Merit Scholarship, she’s giving back to the school as a spokesperson on its Barnes & Noble Student Impact Team for Queensborough’s “Edge for Success” scholarship fund. That fund benefits Queensborough students both directly and indirectly, and has achieved 85 percent of its goal of raising $25 million for the scholarship program by 2015.
Corrigan’s had the opportunity to interact with some of the school’s major donors as a student advocate for the scholarship fund.
It’s a very honoring experience to be able to meet these people and thank them and to tell them their money is being well spent,” Corrigan said. “I’m putting a face to the student body.”
She said she has also benefitted from the experience in being able to apply the communications skills she’s developed as a nurse.
“The communications skills I’ve learned as part of the Impact Team have helped me talk with patients,” Corrigan added. “It’s great that some of my professors knew who I was before I studied with them because I had participated in several fundraisers.”
Corrigan has also been giving back to her community. Two years ago, just prior to starting her studies at Queensborough, Corrigan was trained as an emergency medical technician to work with the Williston Park Fire Department.
“I like the fast pace and the experience I’m getting in EMT,” she said, adding that she wants to work in an emergency room to build on that experience.
Her brothers, Timothy and Brendan Corrigan, are members of the Mineola Fire Department.
“It’s nice to be able to give back to the community I live in,” she said.
In addition to her focus on nursing studies, Corrigan has been a student-athlete at Queensborough, playing on the QCC volleyball team that won the 2010 City University of New York Championship.
She is also a member of the Student Nurses Association at Queensborough and is vice president of the Newman Club.
