Julissa Hernandez

When Julissa Hernandez graduates from the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing, she will most likely head for a career working in obstetrics or pediatrics. “I recently did my OB rotation,” she says, “and I loved labor and delivery. It’s such a crucial time when people really need an advocate. And it’s family oriented, and family is really, really important to me.”

Hernandez, whose bachelor’s is in public health policy with a minor in biology, commutes to UC Irvine from her childhood home in South Gate, Los Angeles, where she lives with three generations of her family. The Dorothy Waffarn scholarship has helped provide for tuition fees and for commuting and living costs during the first year of the master’s program. 

However, additionally important for Hernandez is the recognition of having received the award. “Neither of my parents had the privilege to pursue higher education,” she explains. “I’m the first in my family to go to grad school and I have sometimes experienced imposter syndrome. The award was another thing that told me I deserve to be here, that I can do this. It was so reassuring that my hard work paid off.”

Hernandez worked throughout her undergraduate degree at several shelters for the unhoused, where she saw the impact of health inequities close at hand. After graduation, her role as a research assistant at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles helped convince her that the combination of person-to-person interaction and research offered by nursing would make it a fulfilling career for her.

“The pandemic made a lot of people leave nursing,” she says, “but it made me go towards it. My parents came from underserved communities in Mexico and El Salvador, and I want to work for underserved communities in my own city.”