Zhao is working with a new NUA team to bring the best new initiatives, events, and more to undergraduate students this academic year.
My name is Jiekai Zhao, and I'm the President of the Nursing Undergraduate Association (NUA) for the 2019-2020 year. I'm entering my third year in the University of Alberta Collaborative nursing program and I'm excited to work with our new NUA team this year to bring the best for our undergraduate nursing students! My decision to pursue a future in nursing was inspired by my experiences as a patient while I was still in high school. Seeing the nurses work tirelessly for their patients and so efficiently as a team really exposed me to the intricacies of what it meant to be a nurse. After I was accepted, I wanted to further my experience with the program so I took on the position of First Year Representative in the NUA. In my second year, I became the NUA Vice-President of Finances because I wanted to be more involved within the nursing faculty while being part of the NUA. Near the end of my term as VP Finance, I felt that I wanted the NUA to have more influence and presence in the nursing faculty. And so, here in my third year, I became the President of the NUA in hopes of delivering more support for our nursing students through our events and services as a student association.
In the past year, we held many events, fundraisers, charities, BBQs, and offered services to students such as First Aid certification, CPR certification, and graduation photos. We had great success with all of these events and service partnerships. In February of 2019, the NUA held one of the biggest fully NUA funded events in our student association's history, the Nursing Formal of 2019. It was a memorable night full of delicious food, drinks, games, prizes, dancing, and pictures. It took a lot of grueling work from our awesome executive planning team to fundraise, find sponsorships, organize the venue, choose decorations, and finance the ticket sales. But all that work paid off, and it was a major success! All the attendees of the formal loved it, and it definitely ended our NUA year on a high note.
With our new NUA team this year, there are many ambitious ideas for what we can do for our undergraduate nursing students. The Student Advisory Council (SAC) will play an important role in influencing changes and improvements to the new concept-based nursing curriculum by taking in feedback from students, and will be led by our VP Academic, Grace Irving. Our VP Student Life, Lisa Bott, has many ideas for improving nursing student's mental health by promoting self-care through various initiatives like group fitness sessions, healthy food tabling, and fun BBQs. Isaiah Joy, our VP Finance, has initiated the idea for having special backpacks for nursing students in collaboration with the nursing faculty themselves. Our VP External, Anthony Nguyen, will be working on the creation of nursing stickers for laptops and other items. Finally, this year we have two Canadian Nursing Students Association (CNSA) Associate Delegates, Annika Tork and Hana Filipovic, to be representing our UofA Nursing Chapter alongside our CNSA Official Delegate, Jamie Hudson. These are currently the gears set in motion for the NUA, and all of our members have more ideas that they will soon present forward to initiate within our student association. It's looking to be a great year everyone!