My name is Victoria Zerbato. I am currently a senior in the nursing program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. I live in Medford, MA and I work at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the cardiac ICU as well as Massachusetts General Hospital on a surgical trauma floor as a nursing assistant. I grew up in a very small town in Maine where there was less than 500 students in my high school. I have always wanted to travel and got my first chance as a junior in high school. I was chosen by one of my professors to be a student ambassador with an organization called People to People. We traveled to England, France, Italy and Greece over a month long period. It was a life changing experience.

After graduating, I took college courses off and on, but didn’t really know what I wanted to do until I started working at a facility for adults with mental illness. That job taught me more than I could have ever imagined and helped me decide on pursuing nursing as my career. I began taking nursing courses at a local community college, but there was a waiting list for clinical placement and I knew I wanted to get my bachelor’s degree so I transferred to UMass Boston. Through UMass I have been extremely lucky to learn and work in some of the best hospitals in the world and have the honor of being hired at two of them. In addition to work and school I have been taking cardio kickboxing in an effort to stay active. I also try to go back to Maine whenever I can to visit friends and family. I am very thankful and excited for the opportunity to work with Kenya Heart and Sole. I want to be able to use my nursing skills and knowledge to help those that do not have access to medical care as we do here in Boston. I am very interested in cardiac disease treatment and prevention and working with nursing students in Kenya. I feel I have a lot to learn from this experience and hope I can help others learn as well.