{"id":10496,"date":"2023-03-12T19:41:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T23:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=10496"},"modified":"2023-03-16T12:07:43","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T16:07:43","slug":"special-delivery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2023\/03\/12\/special-delivery\/","title":{"rendered":"SPECIAL\u00a0DELIVERY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n

Amy Tortoriello has experienced a lot of wonderful things since she began her study at Georgia Southern. She was working in a nursing externship program at Northside Hospital Atlanta last summer when she had one experience that few could top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most exciting thing I’ve done in college, hands down, has been during my externship in labor and delivery last summer,\u201d said Tortoriello. \u201cI had the opportunity to help deliver my niece. It was one of the best days of my life\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s also great about the externship program is that she gets to work with her older sister, Jenny Andris, who has been a labor and delivery team leader at Northside for more than 10 years. Tortoriello learns directly from her sister who inspired her to study nursing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Totoriello continues working at Northside a day or two per month as needed, or whenever she has time off from the intensive study and clinicals required by the Georgia Southern nursing program. The senior from Johns Creek, Georgia, plans to graduate in May 2023 with a bachelor\u2019s in nursing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things didn\u2019t start out easy for Tortoriello. Her first year at Georgia Southern was difficult, but her professors made it much easier, especially Matthew Williamson, Ph.D., an associate professor of kinesiology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was having a difficult time getting my bearings and I was struggling in my anatomy class,\u201d explained Tortoriello. \u201cI remember sitting with my professor and just wondering if this is actually the right thing for me because I was having such a hard time. Dr. Williamson told me if I was really passionate about nursing and if it’s really what I wanted to do, then I can do it. And he helped me study for tests and from there on out, I started soaring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tortoriello\u2019s struggles didn\u2019t end there. During her sophomore year, a critical semester that would determine her entry into the nursing program, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just took a lot of work figuring out how I was going to balance my work life, school life and personal life while dealing with my mom\u2019s cancer. And I had to make sure to set aside time for myself. But mom is cancer free and is doing amazing now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduation, Tortoriello wants to continue nursing and after that, more college might be in the offing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would love to continue working in labor and delivery after college and I would eventually like to become a nurse practitioner. That’s the ultimate goal for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what she likes most about Georgia Southern, Tortoriello shares a good philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you’re going to Georgia Southern, you will absolutely love it. It’s such an amazing school. And no matter what your major is, what program you’re going into, stick with it. Because we all doubted ourselves in the beginning and we’ve all made it out perfectly fine. So if you have a dream or a goal that you want to make, just go for it.\u201d \u2014 Liz Walker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExternships are a win-win situation for both the health care industry and our students,\u201d said Melissa Garno, chair and professor in the School of Nursing. \u201cBecause if a student can get an externship during the summer or even during the school year, it supplements their education with real world experience.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\"Amy<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia Southern student Amy Tortoirello gets the opportunity of a lifetime in the Nursing Externship Program, and experienced the best surprise as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-10496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-spring-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}