Focused on Forensics
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(Photo by Will Kirk)

"When people first think about becoming a nurse, they usually imagine working with kids, delivering babies, or helping people with cancer," says graduate student Jocelyn Anderson, RN.  "Most people don't grow up wanting to help rape victims."

But Anderson, who is earning a master's degree in forensic nursing, happens to be quite proud of not being like most people.  "Having a unique perspective," she says, "can go a long way in helping move society forward."

An early interest in biology led Anderson to nursing school; a nursing school practicum in South Africa later led her to the field of forensics.  She says that practicing nursing in that culture "really opened my eyes, as South Africa has one of the world's highest sexual assault rates." 

As a recipient of the Louise Cavagnaro Endowed Scholarship, Anderson is both attending school and working in the neurosciences unit at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.  She enjoys the challenge of neuro nursing for now, but this self-proclaimed misfit has her eyes set on a different kind of career.

"Whether I end up working in a hospital emergency department, educating staff nurses on treating abuse victims, or completing death investigations in a medical examiner's office," she notes, "Johns Hopkins is preparing me to perpetuate change and forward momentum in the nursing profession."   

Louise Cavagnaro Endowed Scholarship
To honor her work as assistant vice president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Louise Cavagnaro's many friends marked her 1985 retirement by establishing this scholarship fund.  An honorary member of the Johns Hopkins Nurses' Alumni Association, Cavagnaro also contributes to this fund, which often supports a member of the hospital staff seeking a nursing degree. 

-Jocelyn Anderson, Graduate