YSN student receives Nightingale Scholarship Award from the VNA of South Central Connecticut
New Haven, CT — March 13, 2006
The VNA of South Central Connecticut, in partnership with the Hospital of St. Raphael, Masonicare and Yale-New Haven Hospital, will award the 2006 Nightingale Scholarships to five Connecticut nursing students, including YSN's Sayaka Ogata.
Scholarship recipients will be honored at a ceremony and press conference on Thursday, April 27, at 3:30 p.m. at the VNA of South Central CT in New Haven.
Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Sayaka entered YSN as a GEPN student in 2003 and is currently in the Women's Health Specialty. "The issues of culture identities, language barriers, and culture clashes have always been a personal interest of mine ever since I left Japan and came to the U.S. eight years ago," said Sayaka. "It has developed into much more than a personal interest over these years."
In addition to her academic and clinical responsibilities, Sayaka has been active on YSN's Diversity Action Committee and Yale University's Diversity Coalition, groups that have promoted diversity education and training on Yale campus. In 2005, Sayaka was one of two YSN students awarded the Wilbur Downs International Health Student Travel Fellowship. She traveled to the People's Republic of China to assess knowledge, attitude, and willingness for integration of HIV/AIDS services among family planning workers in that country.
Prior to entering YSN, Sayaka helped organize a conference on Cultural Competency as an intern at the Harvard Medical School's Center of Excellence in Women's Health. She also took a year off from college to work as a volunteer in Central America, teaching about HIV/AIDS to sex workers in Guatemala and organizing arts/sports clubs for children in the rural areas of Nicaragua. "In the future, I hope to contribute to improving the health of underserved women, including those in developing countries and immigrants here in the U.S.," she said.
