Illuminating Health Podcast: Why We Need First-Gen Grads in Nursing and Health Care

Christina Keny and Laura Wagner

First-gen graduate and PhD candidate Christina Keny (left) and Laura Wagner, professor and founder of FirstGenRN.

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Across the U.S., more than 40 percent of college graduates are the first in their families to earn a bachelor’s degree. What does it mean to be a first-gen student? Why is it so important to have first-gen nurses engaged in improving health and health care? In the inaugural episode of Illuminating Health airing on National First-Gen to College Celebration Day (Nov. 8), Christina Keny, a first-gen graduate and doctoral candidate at the UCSF School of Nursing, and Laura Wagner, professor and founder of FirstGenRN — the first program of its kind nationwide — share their personal experiences and advice.  

 

The guest host for this episode is Mark Tungol, a student in the school’s Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist specialty and the president of the Associated Students of the School of Nursing at UCSF. 

Illuminating Health is the official UCSF School of Nursing podcast that sheds light on health and health care issues that affect our daily lives. Listen in to short conversations with today’s leading health experts. This episode is produced by Katherine Tam and Lisa Klope in the UCSF School of Nursing's Office of Communications.