Seeing the vital role nurses are playing throughout this pandemic helped to solidify Cecilia Flores’ career choice. “Since the pandemic, I definitely gained more interest in nursing, especially within critical care aspects,” she said. “It really touches me thinking about how critical COVID-19 patients are … it’s nurses who are with them during their last breaths and last words. I would do everything I could do to make them as comfortable as possible.”

The West Saint Paul native said she uncovered in high school her drive and passion to help people. 

“It brings me a lot of joy helping people improve their health,” she said. At first, Flores admits she was worried she wasn’t smart enough, particularly in math and science, to consider a career in nursing. “Although to an extent we need to do well in these areas,” she said. “It’s also about having the drive and the passion to help others.”

When investigating nursing schools, it was Saint Mary’s direct admission to the nursing program that most drew her to Winona.

“I liked not having to worry and compete with your classmates for one or two years and then applying to the nursing program,” she said. “I liked the idea of really getting to know my classmates and the people within the program and working as a team instead of competing against them to get into the program like at other universities. We’re already in the program. That’s probably the main thing that made me choose Saint Mary’s.”

Flores isn’t certain what aspect of nursing she wants to go into just yet. As a first-year student in Saint Mary’s new B.S. in Nursing program, she has plenty of time to consider her options. “I’m going into this with an open mind. I do eventually want to be a nurse practitioner,” she said. “I know one of my top interests is psychiatric health. I’ll be having an open mind when going into clinicals to see what interests me.”

Flores said she is already seeing how her Integratus general education courses tie into her future nursing career. “I’m taking theology and science courses, both of which correlate for nursing because we’re not just taking care of a body, we’re taking care of a person with thoughts and feelings,” she said. 

Though her nursing classes won’t begin for a couple of years, Flores said she’s excited to work in the new facilities in Aquinas Hall. “They’re beautiful — the layout, the lab area,” she said. “When you’re in there, it makes you want to get to work. I wish I was a junior already because I just want to start.”