Nancy Pin鈥檚 mother, who survived the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia and went on to become a midwife there, inspired her daughter to go into nursing.
鈥淭hat genocide inspired her to grow up and help people by working in the health field,鈥� Pin says. 鈥淲ith so much death around her, she wanted to help people with the amazing experience of the start of life.鈥�
Pin has always known that she wanted to go into health care, too, thanks to her mother鈥檚 stories. Growing up in Salem, New Hampshire, she enrolled in a vocational program at Salem High School that helped her become a licensed nursing assistant.聽
She earned her clinical hours at Northeast Rehabilitation Hospital 鈥� which hired her as soon as she passed her exams.聽
鈥淭he best thing about working in a rehab hospital is that you see patients at their absolute worst, but by the end of their stay, they鈥檙e a completely different person,鈥� she says. 鈥淏eing able to be with them throughout that process is a really great experience.鈥�
Pin worked at Northeast Rehab in Salem for three years, while embarking on her nursing studies at UMass Lowell. She says she chose UML after a tour that included the . She also felt comfortable here.聽聽
Her first year, she lived in HEALL, the Health Education Academic Living Learning Community. She says it provided great academic and social support, introducing her to students in all of the health sciences disciplines, who were also taking the same, fundamental first-year class: Human Anatomy and Physiology.
鈥淗EALL had posters everywhere, and 鈥楢natomy Jeopardy,鈥� and random social gatherings,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t was really fun just to meet people.鈥�
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the nursing simulation labs became a vital resource for Pin and the other junior nursing majors earning their clinical hours. Most in-person sites were closed to the students 鈥� until Lowell General Hospital opened a mass vaccination clinic. Then, Clinical Instructor Diana McAuliffe arranged to have the students run a vaccination station there. Pin went as often as her schedule allowed, happy to work with real patients.
鈥淲e had given intramuscular deltoid shots in simulation, but this was the first time we鈥檇 given it to a real person,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 was nervous, but I felt like I was very comfortable with my professor there 鈥� that if anything went wrong, she would help me.聽
鈥淲hat really made it not nerve-wracking was the patients. They were so nice, so friendly, and just really excited to get their shot, so being able to do that for them was really nice,鈥� she says.
Outside of academics, Pin is an avid volleyball player. She played on her high school varsity team and on the women鈥檚 intramural team here. She even practiced with the men鈥檚 club volleyball team.聽
Pin also plays and coaches younger children with the Boston Hurricanes, a nonprofit that offers volleyball and basketball programs for Asian Americans in the Boston area. The Hurricanes are part of a loose network of pan-Asian American volleyball organizations based in Chinatowns across the U.S. and Canada. Once a year, they all come together for a tournament.
鈥淚ts purpose is to provide people of Asian ethnicity with a community where they can have common ground and share lifelong connections 鈥� and share a love of volleyball,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 especially find that this community is good to fall back on now, when there are so many hate crimes against Asian Americans.鈥�
Her junior year at UML, Pin was accepted into the family nurse practitioner master鈥檚 degree program, New England鈥檚 oldest, and began taking her first graduate courses under the bachelor鈥檚-to-master鈥檚 program. Those classes will count toward both degrees.
鈥淲hat really inspired me to become a family nurse practitioner is that I have a great relationship with my family care doctor,鈥� Pin says. 鈥淪he has seen me through all of my milestones growing up, and I want to be able to help my patients have that same kind of relationship.鈥�
Ultimately, Pin hopes to work in a community like Lowell with a large Southeast Asian population. While she doesn鈥檛 speak Khmer fluently, she understands it.
鈥淚 would love to be able to help with people like Cambodians, because I understand their struggles. I鈥檇 like to help them with navigating through life, to give them the resources to help them reach their potential through prevention, patient education and early intervention,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f I can help prevent hospitalizations and catch things early in life, that can help the community.鈥�