“We Are UC” highlights the people who thread the fabric of the Utica College community. These profiles are written from the perspective of the subjects themselves.

Story by Whitney Morris, photo provided by Gabriella Felipe

My name is Gabriella Felipe, and I chose UC because they have an amazing nursing program with a hospital located across the street. If I had the chance to redo the college application process all over again, I would still choose UC because I’m here to get a degree and the nursing program is what enticed me to come here. I am happy here because I think I have a good group of friends and several opportunities to remain involved on campus.

UC wasn’t what I expected it to be when I first started out here as far as the types of activities I get to do with the organizations I’m involved with. In the advertisements, they don’t show the open discussions, community conversations and the types of activities that would be taking place, so initially I didn’t think it would be like this.

I am currently a sophomore but I started getting involved on campus my freshman year. I’m a member of the Black Student Union, and I’ve been a part of this organization since my freshman year. I like it because it’s a group of people that think like I do and have the same type of drive for the same things that I’m passionate about. I joined the Greenhouse Club this semester, and we just registered as an official organization on campus. I joined this club because I enjoy gardening, working with plants, and I think it’s just a beautiful site, overall, right in the middle of all the academic buildings.

When it comes to time management, it’s something that I struggle with but I’m working on it. Most times, it comes down to seeing something I want to do and volunteering my time to do it, only to realize after that I have so much of my own work that needs to be done. I just find myself in so many situations where I’m doing one thing, but I should be doing my own work so I’m not up all night trying to get it done.

As far as the future goes, when I was younger I wanted to be in the WNBA, but now I want to be a nurse. I’ve always been fascinated with the human body, but having to recover and go through rehab for multiple injuries while playing basketball only intensified the interest that I already had in the medical field. I find the body very interesting and also find the way medicine works with it to be fascinating. Out of all the medical fields, I kind of just picked nursing because I thought it was the safest route and the best option as far as job security and job growth.