A tough road to nursing school: Niaz Farzadfar’s story

Her mother recalls that Niaz demonstrated stamina and commitment during those trying days. “She took good care of her father and didn’t get tired. She loves nursing, like me; she likes helping people.” Niaz returns the compliment: “One of my motivations to become a great nurse is my mother. The passion she has for her job has made me realize how important it is to love your career.”

A year after her father’s death, Niaz started nursing school. “It was more of a coping mechanism, really. I dealt with patients last year who had cancer—I found myself doing things for these patients that I had done for my dad, but now I saw it in a different light.” In conversation, Niaz downplays the poetic justice of having left Iran to seek religious freedom and ending up in a Catholic school. She chose to attend Mount St. Mary’s because, as she explains, the classes are smaller than the typical community-college nursing classes and students get more one-on-one attention. To pay for this education, she explains proudly, she has taken out loans so as not to burden her mother with the high price of tuition. She chose the BSN degree because it “brings in more elements than just the medical care, such as bioethics, philosophy, history.” For someone who plans to eventually earn an MSN and become a nurse practitioner, it’s a logical first step.

The campus, nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains and featuring picturesque views of the Getty Museum, west Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean, could be distracting to a less-than-serious student. Niaz’s focus is impressive, whether in the classroom, the skills lab or the library, where she spends several hours on some days, studying between classes. Assistant professor and Skills Lab Coordinator Judy Ontiveros describes her as a “wonderful student” who passed a re-demonstration of skills assessment on the first attempt. Still, it’s not only serious business. In the lab, Niaz’s youthfulness shows. When a computer-controlled simulation robot used as an educational tool makes a vomiting noise, she reflexively giggles.