Nancy Lopez

UNM-Valencia Visionary Grad, Class of 2026

Transcript

My name is Nancy Lopez. I was born in Mexico. I am a resident of Belen. I was raised here in New Mexico. I’m a single parent of two children, and I'm currently pursuing my Associate Degree in Nursing. I went to school at Belen High School. I dropped out, I didn't complete it, but I continued to go to school. I got my GED at YDI, it is affiliated with UNM, and that is how I heard about the UNM-Valencia Campus. From there, I got my CNA certification. So when I got my CNA certification, I worked at a nursing home. I got promoted to medication aid, and I worked really closely with nurses and providers, and I learned a lot. Nurses inspired me, working with them and how they helped patients. I saw how compassionate they were, and I loved helping people and helping the nurses with treatments that they had.

Being a role model for my children has been very important to me as a single parent. They've seen the struggles, the challenges that comes along with going to school as an adult. I've been going to school for a long time, and my college experience has been great. It's been overwhelming. It's been stressful, but my children, my family, my coworkers, my friends, everybody has been very supportive. That is the most important thing when you're going to school is to have a supportive environment, supportive individuals. My kids have been very patient with everything going on. It's a big change. My instructors have helped me, guiding me throughout the process. It's a very small class, so I feel like that's really important when you need extra support.

Individuals that I would like to thank for supporting me in everything, are my parents, my kids, my siblings, my instructors, my peers, my coworkers, everybody has helped me with a lot, and I'm very grateful for them. The most fulfilling part of being in the Nursing program at UNM-Valencia has been being able to help people. We have done clinicals at the hospital, and there's a lot of people that I've helped, even in the short amount of time. My advice to other students if they were interested in nursing is to make sure you have a great support system, because it can be very overwhelming and it does take up a lot of time. Having a good support system is everything.