Adam Corl and GEP classmates to celebrate nurse pinning ceremony virtually Sept. 14
Adam Corl, a Graduate Entry Pathway Doctor of Nursing Practice student in the Graduate School of Nursing, found his passion for medicine and health care through his undergraduate experiences at UMass Amherst, and then UMass Boston, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology in 2010.
“I worked as both a medical and research assistant during college, which exposed me to the patient and clinical setting. I always knew that I wanted to work closely with people and help them achieve their goals,” he said.
Corl is one of 38 newly qualified nurses who will be recognized at the annual Graduate Entry Pathway Pinning Ceremony on Monday, Sept. 14, at 6 p.m. via Zoom and Facebook Live. This event welcomes into the profession students with bachelor’s degrees in fields other than nursing who have qualified for licensure as registered nurses after one year of accelerated coursework.
Corl, a Hopedale native, graduated from UMass Boston and lived in Argentina for eight years, working as a managing editor and journalist for a digital publication. He helped share stories regarding the intersection of LGBTQI life, community and politics in Latin America.
“I think a crucial part of patient care is communication,” Corl said. “My experience in the media setting allowed me to expand on those skills—focusing on context, verifying sources, compartmentalizing information that is important. We do the same thing as nurses; we have to know our ‘audience’ and what they are needing from us.”
He returned to Massachusetts from Argentina in 2018 and began working at Fenway Health as a medication-assisted treatment assistant. In 2019, he enrolled at UMass Medical School in the GSN’s Graduate Entry Pathway Adult Gerontology Primary Care track.
“I’ve worked in a variety of in-patient nursing settings including surgical, pediatrics, mental health and neonatal health through my rotations. My passion lies in primary care and preventive medicine, so I hope to someday use my experience as a clinician to form policies that could help communities. I also think it would be great to continue contributing to both the LGBTQI and Spanish-speaking communities.”
The pinning ceremony will hold special meaning for him, he said.
“In preparation for the ceremony, we had to film someone in our lives giving us our pins. My mother, an oncology nurse, pinned me in her back yard wearing both her and my grandmother’s pins,” he said.