Congratulations to Carolyn Figueroa, Central Sterile Supply Supervisor in the CSS department at Day Kimball Hospital who graduated this year with her associate’s degree in health science! Carolyn graduated cum lade with a GPA of 3.7 from Goodwin University.

In 2016, Carolyn decided it was time to make a career change. To do so, she would need to go back to school despite already being busy raising three teenagers as a single mother and working two jobs. But this was a sacrifice she was willing to make.

Carolyn discovered the deep desire to make an impact in others’ lives through pursuing a career as a nurse at a young age as she watched her mother battle cancer. “It has been a dream of mine to become a nurse ever since I was a little girl and when my mother became ill with cancer. She was in the hospital for months and I would stay with her. The nurses took countless hours to care for my mom and supported my entire family at the same time that they were taking care of her. That’s when it clicked that I wanted to become a nurse. I want to touch the lives of our patients and their families like those nurses did for my family,” shared Carolyn.

Carolyn continues her studies in pursuit of a Bachelor of Science in Health Science with a concentration in public health and a minor in management and leadership skills, and hopes to one day become a nurse.

Even though the campus has moved to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Carolyn looks on the bright side. “I have had to take some of my labs online which has been a cool experience. They send you everything you need in a kit, so I am able to perform all of the experiments at home. I dissected a cow eyeball, a fetal pig, and sheep brain just to name a few. This semester I am taking microbiology and they even gave me my own microscope!”

Carolyn is approaching three years in the CSS department at Day Kimball Hospital as a certified registered central sterile technician and a certified healthcare leader. When asked what she likes best about working at Day Kimball, Carolyn said, “There is a different atmosphere here than there is at most other hospitals. Everyone here is so caring and nice. As soon as I walked in the doors here it felt like family.”