Danielle Nicoletti, CCF College Scholarship recipient, graduated in 2022 with a double major in both Nursing and Public Health. As an anatomy and physiology tutor, member of the Dean's Advisory Council, and writer for the The College of New Jersey Quality and Safety Education for Nurses Newsletter, Danielle was deeply involved throughout her time in school. She has worked as a patient care technician for the last two years, volunteered with Rachel's House, an organization that provides support to single pregnant women, interned with Once Upon a Preemie, an organization which helps take care of premature babies, all while maintaining incredible grades. From a young age, Danielle thought she wanted to be a pediatrician. Throughout high school, her vision changed. While attending a medical vocational high school, there was one teacher that really inspired her. This teacher was a nurse and stressed the importance of caring for others. Danielle was galvanized by her stories and decided to start thinking about nursing school. By the time she visited The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), she knew she fully wanted to pursue being a nurse. TCNJ felt like home to her, and she was impressed by the school’s ability to prepare nurses to have a very high NCLEX (National Council Licensure Examination) pass rate. After one round of rotations, and during the summer after her sophomore year at The College of New Jersey, Danielle began working as a Patient Care Technician. During this time, she worked in the telemetry unit which consists of patients with heart problems. This was the summer of 2020 and COVID was running rampant. She worked in this position for a year, working with COVID-19 patients with heart problems, non-COVID patients, and growing her passion for critical care. While at TCNJ, Danielle also did maternity and pediatric clinical rotations and felt an extremely strong connection to her maternity rotation. During this time, Danielle got to watch live births, cesarean births, and frequently found herself focusing her attention on the babies. Because of COVID-19, Danielle did not get an internship at a NICU. She took this as her sign and pursued an internship with Once Upon a Preemie. From learning how to treat babies and how being in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) affects families, this time solidified Danielle’s love for NICU nursing. Danielle’s experience and her deep-rooted passion for critical care nursing landed her a nursing job right out of college. She will go on to pursue her dream of becoming a NICU nurse at Jersey Shore University Medical Center and hopes to, in a few years, go back to school to obtain her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.