At the Connell School of Nursing (CSON), education is framed as formation: a holistic process centered on rigorous inquiry, critical thinking, and service to others. The school also measures achievement by whether students feel grounded, empowered, and confident as they grow into health care professionals entrusted with people’s lives.
Hilary Scheintaub
“If students have a sense of belonging, they’re more likely to achieve academically,” says Hilary Scheintaub, inaugural assistant director of learning and student success at CSON. (Her work is supported by a $1.8 million grant from the Bedford Falls Foundation, which focuses on nursing education.)
To foster academic excellence underpinned by the Jesuit tradition of formation, CSON offers three categories of student success programs: support and mentorship, leadership and service, and pivotal transitions. For nursing students, whose classroom learning is paired with emotionally and physically demanding clinical experiences, these pillars are essential to their success. One hallmark program from each category illustrates the depth of support.
Support and Mentorship
Kelsy Pinto
When Kelsy Pinto ’28 arrived on campus, she worried about succeeding in a demanding nursing program. In tears, she approached Anya Villatoro, assistant dean of student services at CSON. Could she really handle the workload? Right away, Villatoro responded with encouragement and a plan.
“What’s unique about CSON is how accessible faculty members are and how close you can get with them,” Pinto says. “Anya literally saw me [crying] and was able to help me continue with my nursing career.”
Anya Villatoro
For CSON students like Pinto, academic difficulty often isn’t the biggest adjustment to campus life; it’s learning how to ask for help. When early science courses like chemistry, anatomy, or pathophysiology don’t come easily, promising future nurses can feel unmoored.
That’s why Villatoro urged Pinto to participate in near-peer mentoring, a program that connects students with classmates who are trained to provide academic guidance. Pinto says she found it daunting to approach faculty during office hours, but her student mentor, Tessely Solano ’27, became a trusted friend. She assured Pinto that she belonged—and that she could excel in anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and statistics.
“It was so nice to be able to get a student perspective, on a student’s level,” Pinto says.
CSON’s near-peer mentor model is designed to encourage vulnerability by making mentorship relational and proactive. What began as an informal effort evolved into a structured program, pairing first-year and sophomore students with upper-level nursing majors in weekly small-group meetings. Mentors assist with course material, study strategies, and the unwritten rules of college life, from how to take advantage of office hours to how to manage clinical schedules.
“What’s unique about CSON is how accessible faculty members are and how close you can get with them.”
—Kelsy Pinto ’28
The program is designed to be as rewarding for the mentors as it is for the students. Sophomore mentors receive a stipend to support their leadership while juniors earn independent course credit that paves the way for graduate-level coursework in their senior year, credits they can later transfer toward a graduate program. Meetings are intentionally low stakes, often over coffee courtesy of the program, and are intended to foster academic confidence and belonging.
Crucially, the program also reinforces a professional trait central to nursing: recognizing what you don’t know and asking for support.
Every nursing student is also assigned a faculty advisor—an experienced nurse—early in their academic career, a relationship that is intended to last all four years. Advisors do more than help with course selection; they also discuss clinical experiences, provide proactive outreach if grades falter, and guide the transition into professional nursing.
That faculty support, and a 14:1 student-to-teacher ratio, is complemented by academic coaching led by staff with clinical and teaching backgrounds. Coaches work with students on content mastery and practical skills such as time management, overcoming test anxiety, and adapting to different instructional styles.
“We’re very high-touch, and this is one of the things that I love the most about working at CSON,” says Villatoro. “We benefit from all the wonderful resources of ‘big BC,’ so to speak, but within the context of a really small community where I know the students’ names.”
Leadership and Service
CSON frames leadership as responsibility to patients, communities, and the broader health care system too.
That philosophy anchors the school’s service initiatives, particularly its global health partnerships. One recent example is a collaboration with St. John’s College in Belize, where CSON faculty supported the launch of a nursing program designed to treat underserved communities.
Colleen Simonelli
Colleen Simonelli, CSON’s associate dean for student services, traveled to Belize City with six senior nursing students, who observed clinical care, evaluated courses and labs, and engaged with faculty and national nursing leaders over the course of a week. The experience reinforced for the students CSON’s view of nursing as a vocation rooted in service.
“Seeing this health care system firsthand was eye-opening. My students came away with a deep appreciation for the resources we have, and an even deeper respect for the Belizean nurses delivering quality care with so little,” Simonelli says.
Pivotal Transitions
Students in the rigorous nursing program can sometimes feel uncertain or overwhelmed, especially sophomore year, when they begin their first hospital clinical placements. This pivotal transition occurs when the dedicated study of nursing evolves into the active practice of being a nurse. To support that shift, CSON hosts a classwide retreat known as SCRUBS (Sophomore Connell Retreat for Undergraduate Baccalaureate Students), held a few weeks into the spring semester.
The program’s timing is intentional, since students are at the crossroads of specialized nursing clinicals and coursework, with some encountering real patients and high stakes. Over the SCRUBS weekend, faculty, alumni, and trained student leaders explore themes such as nursing as a calling, managing pressure, and balancing personal and professional responsibilities. By stepping back, students can purposefully embrace the gradual evolution of becoming a nurse.
“The retreat asks students to sit with hard questions: How do you embrace the discomfort of learning something new? How do you draw on community to identify a vocational commitment to nursing when clinical settings become challenging? From a Jesuit language standpoint, this doesn’t mean that there might not be moments of challenge, doubt, or difficulty,” says Villatoro.
The student success program’s central question—“How is this going to manifest in the common good?”—is what makes it uniquely Jesuit.
—Anya Villatoro
Assistant Dean of Student Services
The retreat offers students an opportunity to explore their commitment to helping others and ask themselves how that commitment keeps them grounded in moments of challenge, she says.
SCRUBS also addresses less existential real-world concerns. The nursing curriculum is demanding, and sometimes it can be tough for students who are studying hard to see non-nursing classmates enjoying more free time.
“How do we normalize sacrifice for commitment and responsibility in a way that’s impactful and that gets them to have the conversation?” Villatoro asks.
That’s where senior student leaders play a key role, sharing their own strategies and missteps.
“They model authenticity and vulnerability, creating space for dialogue to occur,” Villatoro says. “It’s emphasizing that we’re not looking for perfection; it’s growth and learning.”
Pinto says the SCRUBS retreat reinforced the importance of balance, self-care, and connection beyond grades. “It was amazing,” she says. “We reflected and had a lot of talks with faculty, who explained to us what it’s like to be a nurse, how to take care of ourselves, and that grades don’t define our overall purpose in life.”
Measuring the Impact
While the philosophy behind CSON’s student success initiatives is deeply values-driven, the school is also committed to evaluating impact.
A new four-year Inclusive Excellence study led by Villatoro and Simonelli is tracking the Classes of 2027 and 2028 to assess students’ sense of belonging, academic confidence, and engagement. Surveyed throughout their first year, students who participated in activities such as peer mentoring and academic support showed early gains in confidence and self-efficacy. The study will follow them through graduation and licensure.
Most of all, the student success program’s central question—“How is this going to manifest in the common good?”—is what makes it uniquely Jesuit, Villatoro says.
“It’s not just about a degree that’s going to set me up for success, although that very much can and should be part of it,” she says. “But what does it mean in the context of my responsibility to the common good in society, doing something that is meaningful? And I think nursing is a wonderful vocation to capture the meaning of doing good in the world.” ◆
Becoming a Nurse
In their senior year, as students prepare to enter professional practice, they tackle the ethical and professional questions that define their new identity as nurses in the required capstone course Actualizing the Role of Professional Nurse.
Using a structured reflective approach inspired by Jesuit philosopher Bernard Lonergan, S.J., faculty who teach the weekly course move students through a sequence of experience and understanding that leads to sound judgment and decisive action. The goal is to solidify how each student intends to actas a professional nurse.
An emphasis on open dialogue is deliberate. In an era of polarization and echo chambers, the course challenges students to listen, contemplate, and engage respectfully—skills essential for patient-centered care. Villatoro says this style of formative education helps students make meaning of their classroom experiences. ◆