Originally published on May 27, 2021.
Socorro Herrera (’09) has fashioned a rewarding nursing career in Chandler, Arizona, and credits her SUU education not only for providing a sound educational foundation but also for building her confidence and ability to interact comfortably with a vast variety of others.
“SUU prepared me for my future by teaching me the skills necessary for any professional setting,” she says. In addition to her on-campus instruction and studies, she interned and served as a research fellow for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. There, she was able to work alongside the directors of the Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities and the Office of Women’s Health.
Socorro concentrated on building awareness, synergy, and strategic approaches to strengthening CDC’s partnership with American Indian/Alaskan Native tribes and communities. She gained experience in setting up a collaborative network and process for sharing information relevant to a specific racial and ethnic population across multiple centers/offices.
Today, the mother of two boys is an RN for Apricus Health as a telehealth provider and loves that she is able to work from home and spend extra time with her family.
“Having the luxury to work from home as a nurse is a blessing itself,” she says. “I love that I can still help sick patients and connect with them from home.”
There, she enjoys her family as well as baking, cooking, basketball, softball, and volleyball. And, she is further focused on how she can help to get necessities out to people in need, whether in her own community or her hometown community of Gallup, New Mexico.
From there, after high school, Socorro followed her older sister Nicole to SUU where she was active in the Hispanic Club and the Multicultural Club, the latter of which she served as president, gaining lifelong friends, she says.
“I was also able to connect with and recruit high school students across the United States to become a part of SUU and grow campus diversity, and I was active in the Rural Health Scholars where we volunteered our time during the summer and winter breaks to help communities in Guadalajara and Sonora, Mexico, with their health needs,” she says and adds that as secretary for her nursing class, she coordinated Red Cross blood drives in the local community.
She credits that variety of SUU experiences as the source of her leadership skills.
“While at SUU I learned to put myself into new positions with people or places,” she says. “The University offers an extensive variety of things to do. I am glad I was able to put myself out there and learn what SUU can offer. Name almost any club and SUU definitely has it.”
She is thankful for a student-centered atmosphere on campus and credits faculty members Lynne Ornes, Kevin Tipton, and Jill Wilks, “who always gave me hope.”
