Get to Know Ge

My name is Genniel, but you can call me GeGe! I am a junior, Public Health Science major, now completing my sixth semester at NJCU. I developed a love for kids at a significantly young age, and being a part of such a large family exposed me to being around loads of children at a time, and over time it became a passion rather than a chore. Through this realization I decided that my career path had to include working with kids because it was something I genuinely enjoyed. After months of
researching I finally chose the Neonatal Nursing field, which includes attending births and providing care for infants directly after birth. Evaluating and overseeing the care of infants in the NICU. 

Monitoring the health of infants suffering from medical issues relating to birth, such as prematurity or congenital defects.

Since my last class with Professor Knauer, my life has made significant changes. I am now expecting my first child, a baby boy due to arrive some time in April of this year! I'm just hoping not to pop 

during a ZOOM Presentation. lol

(cousins, grown ge, & abuela 2015)

 I was raised in Jersey City, New Jersey, and born into a large Dominican family. My first fluent spoken language was Spanish, and I learned English after starting school. The first exposure to any form of literature, was in spanish when my mom would leave me with my grandmother while she worked. My grandmother was a very faithful Christian, and taught me how to hold and read a prayer before I could read the letters on a children’s book.

  

(cousins, baby ge, & abuela 2001)

My earliest memory of english literary performance, apart from school, was from my mother. After being in this country for almost 10 years she had finally gotten a chance to turn her residence into a citizenship, and to prepare for her citizenship test she would repeat the 100 questions in the study guide with their corresponding answers, and every trip to Walmart was accompanied by the study guide soundtrack on a loop. 

Every chance I got, I would sit and listen to her read, she would interrupt my gazing with a snap of her fingers and followed by a firm voice;

“Pero mi hija, ponte ayudarme, que la estudia en ingles eres tu”. (daughter, help me, you’re the one learning in english.)

 

(mommy & me, 2002?) 

Before she tossed the “American Citizenship Exam Guide” onto my lap.  I remember hearing from her and my aunts, and uncles who had to take the test as well, how lucky I was to have been born with my citizenship and the rights that come with it. It wasn’t until after I understood the privilege it was and how hard the people who didn’t have it already had to work to get it. With the move to this country came adjustment to an entirely new culture, completely distant from the one they were used to. I had the best of both worlds growing up; submerged in my latin culture, nourished with arroz y habichuela con pollo ,loaded up with history from the “motherland”, and being able to step outside into what was my “life in America”, school by eight in the morning, passing with flying colors, and setting the foundation for what is a successful Latina woman in the land of the free.

 (mom, dad, brother, sister, & me)

 (mom, and her siblings)