Undergraduate scholarship makes nursing a reality

Rose Klucka dreamed of becoming a nurse, but her financial circumstances stood in the way. She worked in healthcare anyway — for more than 40 years — as an assistant in a pediatrician’s office.

Nursing was still part of what she did, albeit unofficially. Israel J. Rosefsky, MD, LHD ’97, hired Klucka in 1952. She learned on the job and developed such close relationships with the doctor’s patients and their families that they would call her home, sometimes at 2 a.m., to ask for medical advice, recalls her daughter, Ceme Curley.

“She would have loved to have been a nurse, but she couldn’t afford to go to school,” Curley says.

After Klucka, of Binghamton, died in 2011 at age 83, her family and friends founded the Rose Klucka Memorial Nursing Scholarship at Binghamton University’s Decker School of Nursing to honor her and her dedication to nursing, and to give students with similar aspirations the opportunity to fulfill their dreams.

Established in 2012, the scholarship is awarded to Decker undergraduate nursing students with demonstrated academic merit. Preference is given to students interested in pediatrics.

“She loved the patients, helping people and seeing the children grow up,” her son, Marty Klucka says. “She took a genuine interest in them. She took care of generations.”

Vivian Lee ’18 received the Klucka nursing scholarship her senior year at Binghamton.

“I’m a first-generation Chinese-American, and I’m the first in my family to graduate from college. I’m the first nurse in my family, as well,” says Lee, who has three siblings. “My mom’s a single mom, so it was really tough growing up. I just wanted to make my mom proud, take care of her and support my family.”

Lee helped raise a younger brother. She was 12 years old when he was born. That experience and her work as a volunteer on a pediatric floor at a hospital helped spark her interest in pediatric nursing.

“I’ve always had a passion for taking care of people,” she says. “Pediatrics is something I will hold close to my heart. But I’m open to any specialty, wherever life takes me. I’m really excited that nursing has so many options.”

Since graduation, Lee has been working part-time at a nursing home while she awaits opportunities to work as a registered nurse at a hospital. Eventually, she plans to pursue her master’s degree and possibly a doctorate to advance her education and career.

“The scholarship gave me the support I needed to become one step closer in my career path,” she says. “Without scholarship donors willing to support educational endeavors, students such as myself would be unable to pursue nursing school or even college in general.”