“When I graduated high school, I was applying to different colleges and the U was the place where I was able to get the best scholarship. I clearly saw that I could be successful there and still be close to home.

I am studying pre-nursing right now. I have changed my major a whole bunch of times. The more classes I took, the more I realized I liked science, especially biology. I had been on the dental hygiene path and figured out that wasn’t what I wanted to do. But the prerequisite classes were the same for nursing, so I switched to that path.

I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brazil and while I was there, one of my assignments was for me to be the nurse for the other missionaries. I did things like made appointments for them at hospitals and helped them when they were sick. Through that experience, I learned how much I like to take care of other people and that helped me decide to switch to nursing.

I am a part of the Latter-day Saint Student Association, LDSSA, at the Institute of Religion. I am the president of the service committee and we work closely with the Bennion Center on campus. We work with them and other organizations in the community to do all sorts of activities for students. Every couple of weeks, we have some kind of service project or activity for students to do.

I love everything about this experience. I love meeting new people and bringing them into a circle where they feel like they can belong. When I first started at the university, it was so meaningful to me that I found a group where I felt like I belonged. It made it easier for me to stay and to complete my classes and everything I needed to do. Being a part of an organization where I get to help students feel included while serving our community is really special to me. There is just a joy I feel when I get to serve someone.”

— Raquel Ayala Falabella, a pre-nursing sophomore from Taylorsville, Utah