From the diner to Decker: Binghamton alumni award winner finds his calling in nursing
Gabrael Sindoni '17 receives BOLD 10 Under 10 Award
Sometimes it takes time to discover our calling in life, and you never know when that moment of clarity will strike. For Gabrael Sindoni ’17, his journey to nursing began after a chance encounter at a diner.
“I waited tables for about 10 years, and one night, a table came in that included the dean of the nursing school,” Sindoni said. “We started talking, and she told me, ‘You need to be a nurse.’ I told her I already had a bachelor’s in business and wasn’t really using it, but she gave me her card and told me about this accelerated program at Binghamton University.”
Sindoni sat on the idea for a week or two, but then started looking into it: “My mom is a nurse, and my sisters are nurses, so it’s always been around me. Eventually, I applied, took the prerequisites, and got into the program — the rest is history.”
Sindoni, now the program director of nursing excellence at Guthrie Lourdes Hospital, has been awarded a 2026 Bearcats of the Last Decade (BOLD) 10 Under 10 Award, an Alumni Association honor recognizing 10 established or potential alumni leaders who graduated from Binghamton within the last 10 years.
And, it’s all because he decided to listen to Joyce Ferrario, dean of the Decker School of Nursing (as it was then called) from 2005-2015, and apply for Decker’s Baccalaureate Accelerated Track (BAT) nursing program, which is for those who already have a bachelor’s degree in another field. It’s an intense program, as students complete it in one academic year.
“It’s full-time, and you’re really covering about two years of school condensed into roughly nine months,” Sindoni said. “A lot is coming at you all at once, but the faculty were amazing, and the clinical instructors were top-notch. I definitely connected with some people in my cohort and built strong friendships.”
Sindoni is still in touch with some of those classmates because they went through a lot together during that time.
When he started the program in 2016, Sindoni was about 10 years removed from his first bachelor’s degree, so getting back into studying and being in the classroom was a bit of a shock.
“I had to relearn how to study and figure out what worked best for me, because everyone learns differently,” he said. “Some of my classmates picked things up very quickly, while I had to work through things a little more slowly. But that process helped me understand how I learn best.”
One thing Sindoni quickly realized is that nursing is unlike any other profession: it’s intense and demanding — nurses have people’s lives in their hands every day. The program was no different.
“There’s a joke I remember: ‘Welcome to nursing school — you have a test tomorrow,’ and it was literally like that,” he said. “I think we started on a Tuesday and our first exam was on Friday, and then there was another exam the next week. The pace was constant, and you had to stay focused every single day.”
Sindoni admitted it was overwhelming at times, but he quickly learned to stay organized and manage his time.
“There were definitely moments where I thought, ‘This isn’t worth it. I haven’t seen my family in three weeks.’ It was four days a week of clinicals and classes, and the workload was intense,” he said. “But classmates like Auden Schmitt Frances [2017] and Connor Flynn [2017] really pushed me through those moments. They were always there for me and reminded me that I couldn’t stop. Some of the instructors and people in the admissions office were also incredibly supportive and kept encouraging me to stick with it.”
Sindoni found a great support system at school, but he had an even better one at home.
“My wife was my rock through everything,” he said. “At the time, we had four young kids, and there were weeks where I only saw them for a couple of hours because of school and studying. She was home managing everything while I was working through the program. We actually looked back at videos from my graduation recently, and some of the kids remember it, and some of them don’t. But when we talk about that time now, we realize it was truly a team effort that got us through that year.”
When Sindoni learned he won a BOLD 10 Under 10 Award, he was shocked.
“There are so many other people out there who are deserving of it,” he said. “So I was really surprised and humbled when I found out. Being part of the Decker alumni community means a lot to me. Over the years, I’ve built a lot of great connections with other alumni and students, and I wouldn’t trade those relationships for anything.”
Sindoni shared some advice for anyone considering a career in nursing and pursuing nursing school.