News & Events
Nursing Student Weathers Challenges Enroute to Degree and Better Life
Ekaterina Wruck sheepishly admits that she rips out the chapters of her textbooks so that she can study anytime, anywhere without having to lug the heavy books around. "I have to make every minute count -- I study on the train, at home, in the bathroom," she explains. "I save all the pages though," she hastily adds, carefully putting a bunch of them back in her bag.
All her studying has paid off, as the 36-year-old nursing major will receive her associate degree on June 5, with the rest of New York City College of Technology's (City Tech) Class of 2007, in the Theater at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. She proudly mentions her grade point average of 3.8 (out of a possible 4.0), and receiving the Lana K. Williams Leadership Award from Chi Eta Phi Sorority's Omega Chi Chapter, which carried with it a much-needed scholarship.
Her achievements are noteworthy given that Wruck is the single mother of a son with disabilities whose close friends and family live thousands of miles away in Russia. (Just recently, her mother left Russia to come live with her.)
Wruck, who was a dentist in Saratov, a city on the Volga River in Russia, came to the U.S. in 1998 by herself to give her son, now 15 years old, a better life. She first lived in Hawaii, on Maui, where a friend had settled, and went to school to improve her poor command of the English language. She sent money home and a year and a half later, after she received her green card, she was reunited with her son on Maui. In the three years she lived in Hawaii, she worked seven days a week at three different low-paying jobs -- dental assistant, waitress and home attendant.
An acquaintance told Wruck that New York City would be a better place for her and her son, as there would be more educational resources available for both of them. Eleven days after 9/11, she moved to the city and lived for a short time with a friend of a friend. She managed to get a job (as a dental assistant) before finding an apartment, and the day came when the acquaintance she was living with told her to move out.
Crying at her desk at work because she had no place to go, she was approached by a co-worker who generously offered to put her up until she could find an apartment. "I had only worked there for a week, and I didn't know anyone in the city; I don't know what I would have done," she recalls. Shortly after, she found the apartment in Sheepshead Bay where she and her son currently reside.
One day, she was sitting on the couch watching television and she had an epiphany: "I thought, 'If I can sit here and watch TV, I could go to college,'" she explains. "I had my doubts because my English was not very good, but I went ahead with my plan anyway."
Not sure if she wanted to study dental hygiene or nursing, she came to City Tech, which offers both. "The nursing program was attractive to me because I had studied nursing in high school and actually worked as a licensed practical nurse when I was in dental school in Russia," she says. "And it's a two-year program, which meant I'd be able to start out in my career sooner and be able to support my family."
Soon after she enrolled, circumstances at home almost made her give up on her education and return to Russia; her son broke his leg and she didn't have the money to pay for his care, and, to boot, she almost lost her job taking off time from work to care for him. "I was a part-time student working full-time, gone from early morning until late at night," she says. "Once again, a person's kindness helped me; my son's babysitter told me she wouldn't charge me for a couple of months."
Back on track, Wruck was encouraged when she received an "A" in her introductory biology class and finished her nursing prerequisites. When she started taking nursing classes and the required clinicals, she had to quit her job because her employer refused to let her work part-time.
She found a way to continue, which included getting a 20-hour a week job, charging her credit cards to the max and tapping into the bonus she had received at her previous job and her income tax refund, in addition to the scholarship she received from City Tech.
"When I received very high grades in the courses I took during my first semester of nursing, I said to myself, 'I read and comprehend English, and I can understand what the professors require of me.' I was so happy. I really enjoyed the nursing program from day one."
"Ekaterina Wruck did not just do very well, she excelled here at City Tech," says Nursing Professor Ellen McGuinn. "One example of this is that she was named recipient of the Benna Katz Award for receiving the highest grade in Nursing 103, with a 95.86 average for the course.
"Ekaterina also possesses what I refer to as the essential 'C' elements in a nursing student," Professor McGuinn adds. "With a calm, confident manner, she is competent in her skills, communicates well with clients and members of the health care community, critically thinks, is compassionate in her delivery of care and committed to the profession of nursing."
Wruck says she's interested in psychiatric nursing but wants to explore medical-surgical and maternity nursing before she chooses a specialty. She intends to go for her bachelor's degree in nursing from City Tech and then on for a master's. Eventually, she expects to be trained as a nurse practitioner.
"I want to say to others who have the challenge of not knowing English well and/or have difficulties at home that if I could manage to go to college and get a degree, anyone can," she says. "If I had let being a single mom with a special needs child stop me, where would I be now? You just have to jump in and swim."
Just don't buy any used books from Wruck; they are guaranteed to be missing most of their pages!
5/17/07
