During this COVID-19 panademic, those in the medical field are working hard to save lives every day. Our women's lacrosse program has many alumni who entered the medical field after graduating from Villanova. We checked in on six of our former players to see what they have been up to since their playing days as a Wildcat and celebrate all of their live-saving accomplishments.
Leighton is at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing in the 15-month accelerated program. The program is completed in four consecutive semesters of full-time study, so she is on track to graduate in May of 2021 with her BSN. At that time she will be prepared to take the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) to obtain licensure. In the photo above, Leighton was in the NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital working with patients on a rehabilitation floor.
Nicole Lee - Class of 2019
Lee is enrolled in George Washington's accelerated Bachelor of Science degree in nursing, a program with a 15-month curriculum. She's now six months in and has been completing her clinical rotations at Inova Fairfax Hospital on the neuro, stroke, medsurg, post-coronary care unit and psych clinical at Dominion Hospital.
Christine Graziano - Class of 2019
Graziano completed Villanova's accelerated nursing program during her last two years of undergraduate. Since graduation, she accepted a job at Morristown Medical Center, the No. 1 hospital in New Jersey. She has been working on a cardio thoracic medical/surgical floor, but recently volunteered to aide in the efforts to combat COVID-19. Currently she provides care on the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dana Bouwman - Class of 2017
Bouwman works at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in their Urgent Care Center, which is the emergency department for MSKCC cancer patients. They do everything that a normal ER does except all of our patients have cancer. Patients can come in for anything, from chest pain or respiratory distress, to strokes or surgical complications to crazy infections and really anything you can imagine. She is also helping take care of patients who are coming in COVID-19 positive but have cancer and all other co-morbidities on top of it.
Caroline Rizzo - Class of 2016
Rizzo graduated from Villanova with a degree in biology. After college, and now per diem, she works in the Emergency Department at Massachusetts General Hospital doing clinical trial research. She is in her first year of graduate school to become a Physician Assistant (PA) at MGH IHP in Boston. In June, she will start her clinical rotations and will begin to figure out what area of medicine she wants to practice in. Caroline hopes to return to the Emergency Department after graduation as a certified PA to continue in the fast pace environment. Her other interests are cardiology and dermatology.
Sarah Berger Varney - Class of 2010
Berger Varney graduated with a degree from Villanova's College of Nursing in 2010. She is currently a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Nurse. She works at the Maine Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a 53 bed Level 3 unit caring for preemies and newborn babies.
