Praescilla Daquin, RN

In high school, Praescilla Daquin thought she might follow in her uncle’s footsteps and become a doctor. He invited her to shadow him at work one day and also encouraged her to shadow  two nurses. 

“The nurses had more of a connection with the patient. And that’s what I wanted. So that’s when I decided I wanted to be a nurse,” said Praescilla. 

 She chose Russell Sage College for her Nursing bachelor’s degree after attending an open house. 

“The campus was great, nice and green,” she said, “and I got to meet a lot of the Nursing professors. They were welcoming, and on a small campus, I knew that I would be able to interact with them if I needed help.”

Like many students, Praescilla found the transition from high school to college “a little like a roller coaster.” 

With time management and organization, she said, her nursing program became smoother and she was able to be involved in leadership roles on campus. 

“I was in the Dance Ensemble,” she said. “I was class treasurer, then executive treasurer. I was student ambassador for Admissions, and in my junior year I became executive vice president of the Student Government Association.”

Praescilla was also part of Sage’s Collegiate Science & Technology Entry Program — a program sponsored by the New York State Department of Education that provides all different kinds of academic support. She said CSTEP tutoring helped her when she started college, and she really enjoyed becoming a CSTEP tutor in her junior year. 

“Those positions helped me to open up, speak up and make changes for the better,” she said. 

Her experiences in student government and as a tutor have made her think she might like to return to school to become a nurse administrator or nurse educator later in her career. 

Even before she graduated, she had two job offers from a hospital in her hometown. She passed her NCLEX licensing exam in spring 2023, then began a position on a Hold and Observation Unit in Binghamton, New York.