Alex Jung

I believe, as Edmund Burke did, that, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Nursing will help me do something. Over the course of the last year, I have been fortunate enough to experience what it means to do those things through my own work and through my personal experiences.

In February, I watched my girlfriend’s mother, Ms. Anita, take her last breath in a hospital after a lengthy battle with cancer.  I was impressed by the vigilance and kindness of the nursing staff who took care of her, and I found them to be very inspiring. They went above and beyond what was necessary in taking care of her and were genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of their patient. Not only did they treat her but they also treated her family. Ms. Anita was a very kind and loving woman, and partly to honor her memory, I would like to be a nurse who is every bit as tenacious as the professionals who took care of her.

When I was growing up, my father told me about the charitable work he had done with the Navy and it inspired me to pursue a similar type of work. I hope to honor the Jesuit traditions just as he did. I would like to donate my services to organizations helping the impoverished, local people in America and abroad, including those in inner cities, poor rural areas, and underdeveloped nations. 

Between March and December 2009, I was employed as a mental health technician in a psychiatric facility that had an arrangement with the military to treat soldiers, most of whom had been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Most of the military men and women I cared for were stationed at Ft. Carson, CO which was about five miles south of our facility. I saw what the war did to the soldiers who made it out alive and I treated patients with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, severe drug addictions, and many other problems. I found my work to be very satisfying. It was incredibly rewarding to have a soldier, or, in one case, a retired Navy SEAL, tell me things like, “Thank you for saving my life, and thank you from my father, who has never met you. If it weren’t for you, I would be dead now.”  Knowing that I helped others in such a big way gave me a tremendous sense of reward that can’t be matched by money.

For these reasons, as well as several others, I look forward to starting a new career as a nurse.  I am excited to have a career that will mean as much to perfect strangers as it does to me. I look forward to becoming the man I always meant to be through my service to those around me.