Commencement
“It has been a big journey,” she said, “and there were times when I wasn’t sure that I would make it.”
But Richi got through those “times” with a 4.0 GPA and the help of her friends.
“It was a goal that I set for myself,” she said, motioning for her friend Jennifer Stokes of Camden to join her.
Stokes, another summa graduate, said she was drawn to the nursing profession because “I thought that I would have a stable job, and I could work anywhere.”
The young women have jobs at Providence Hospital after they take the national nursing licensure exam this month.
Standing on the Colonial Life Arena floor was nothing new to Ilona Burgrova, a former varsity basketball player who spent hundreds of hours playing and practicing in the building during her years at Carolina. She shared her joy at receiving a master’s degree in health promotion from the Arnold School of Public Health with her parents, Ilona and Frantifek Burgrova. The couple had flown in from the Czech Republic for their daughter’s graduation.
Burgrova recently signed a two-year contract with a professional women’s basketball team in France. In addition to playing basketball, she hopes to volunteer for a health organization “to stay in the field and, of course, save the world.”