A Support System for Others: Ernesto Marcano Jr. ’19

Discovering His Purpose

“I was always interested in the medical field, mainly because my father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was young. MS is an autoimmune disease that basically breaks down the protective coding of our nerves. I feel that nurses are the individuals in healthcare who truly help families such as mine. I knew I wanted to be that support system for others.”

First Generation

Senior lecturer Sarah Eltabib was one of the greatest influences on him, Marcano recalled, “She was one of the first professors that I felt I could trust, in part because she shared with me her story of being first generation [college student/graduate].” He said he also owes a lot of his personal development to belonging to the Latino Student Association, the Adelphi University Student Nurses Association, Pi Lamda Phi (where he was president in junior year and vice president-recruitment as a senior) and peer leader in the Summer Pre-College nursing program. They “prepared me to know when to observe, listen and, most importantly, lead when the time calls for it.” Receiving the President’s Student Leadership Award in 2018 was “my proudest accomplishment at Adelphi.”

Flash-Forward

Marcano, who graduated cum laude, said that he recently accepted a nurse residency position at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, New York. “Though my long-term goal is to end up working with the pediatric population, I’ll be working in medical/surgical at Vassar, gaining the key experience needed to begin my career.” During his clinical rotations, he said, “I fell in love with the pediatric population” at Cohen Children’s Medical Center. “I think this is what I was meant to be.”