Nursing students take state honors

SNAP. They've done it again.

The Student Nurses at Penn captured many of the awards given at the 50th annual convention of the Student Nurses Association of Pennsylvania last month.

Coincidentally, both organizations have the same acronym, SNAP. The Penn SNAP is one of over 50 chapters of the state SNAP -- an organization run by students that represents over 1,800 students from over 50 different nursing schools in Pennsylvania.

The state SNAP honored Penn's chapter with four awards and numerous scholarships. In order to receive an award, each chapter has to apply for the individual awards.

But apply they did, and the prestigious and plentiful awards soon followed.

The Penn chapter garnered the Chapter Excellence Award, the Gold Achievement Membership Award and the Most Outstanding Web site Award. Also, Nursing juniors Jamie Moore and Elizabeth Hernandez received second place for the Community Health Award.

Penn's success is due, at least in part, to its well-run chapter. Penn's SNAP chapter -- run by its 12 member board of directors -- organizes social and educational programming for nursing students. The chapter also partakes in community service and provides peer advising, networking opportunities and scholarships and has a career resource center.

Also at the convention, Nursing junior Laura Breyfogle was elected as president of the association. Breyfogle is actually the first person from Penn to be elected as the state SNAP president. In fact, Breyfogle is the only person from Penn to ever be on the state SNAP board.

"I am excited beyond all belief. It's not something that anyone at Penn has done before," Breyfogle said. "I hope I'm opening the floor for those students coming after so that they can see it as something that is attainable."

Last year, Breyfogle was the secretary-treasurer for the state SNAP and was again the first nursing student to have held the position.

"In the past we haven't been as involved in the state and national level, so we're very happy to have representation at that level, and we're thrilled to have Laura serving the state as a representative of our school," SNAP Penn chapter President Betsy White said.

And Breyfogle already has set goals for what she would like to accomplish during her term as state SNAP president.

"I want to make sure that we are reaching everyone who is involved [with SNAP]. I think that there are barriers to involvement at the state level," Breyfogle said. "I want to also re-evaluate the state policies and be sure that they are up to date because I know in the past they have not been looked at very closely."

Breyfogle added that for next year, state SNAP is targeting around 1,950 students to be involved at the state level and potentially have the same whirlwind experience as she did.

In fact, the chapter at Penn has only recently become involved at the state and national level -- the National Student Nurses' Association is the umbrella organization for state SNAP.

"Two years ago we had 20 [NSNA] members, and now we have about 85 members," White said.

But despite her numerous accomplishments, Breyfogle refuses to take all the credit -- she attributes this increased involvement to chapter SNAP adviser Diane Spatz.

"She's amazing. She has been helping us and pushing us," Breyfogle said.

Currently, Penn has the seventh largest chapter in Pennsylvania and the second largest chapter in the greater Philadelphia region.

The various scholarships -- given by different health systems -- were also awarded to five nursing students -- senior Erin Carpenter and sophomores Kara Colopinto, Sharon Gottesman, Noele Kasper and Jill Siegrist.

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