Maria Lara is a recent graduate from Caracas, Venezuela. Even with her busy study schedule, Maria made time to join the women’s crew team at Villanova.

Here’s what Maria has to say about her experience here in the College of Nursing:

“The faculty at Villanova are very patient and willing to help. The fact that the College has a certain diversity of students was helpful for me since I am from Venezuela. I feel like teachers here appreciate that being from a foreign culture can broaden nursing students’ view of nursing as a whole, because in the U.S. nurses must work with patients from many different countries and cultures.”

“Pharmacology and Theology — death and dying — have been the most useful ones ... I think the biggest benefit I’ve gotten is to be able to compare both nursing worlds: the one I am experiencing here, which is developing very fast, and the one that I was exposed to in my country, which is not developing so fast. My most important long-term goal though is to develop the nursing profession in my country, and my experience here at Villanova has certainly given me the tools that will be useful for that.”