Hello from Angelique

Hi Everyone!

My name is Angelique and I am one of the lucky members of this clinical immersion experience that will be traveling to Washington, DC in just a couple of weeks! I am so thrilled to be involved in this experience. Similar to most (if not all) of the other clinical group members, I have also lived in small town, USA my entire life. While I absolutely love traveling and have been to a number of larger cities before, I have never experienced a city in the manner we will be doing with Washington. When you travel as a vacationer/tourist, you tend to turn a blind eye to the negative and sad aspects of your surroundings. I am looking forward to taking in a city from a different perspective, as well as hopefully learning more about a population I have had little contact with up to this point. It seems like an especially important time to become more familiar with the homeless population as that, with the current economic situation in our country and in the world, we're all seeing everyday how fragile our "middle class" status can be. The longer the recession drags on and the more people you know who have gotten laid off/downsized/hours cut back/etc, it makes it a little more real to you that just a little bad luck or bad timing could be enough to put any one of us into a dire situation. The homeless aren't really different from any of us except that they've experienced that bad luck or bad timing, while we're just hoping it doesn't invade our lives.

As far as a little more about me: I graduated from UW-Oshkosh with my undergraduate nursing degree in December 2005, and have primarily focused my practice on Cardiology. I moved to the greater Eau Claire area in August of 2006 (right after my hubby and I got married) and I have to say, I really do love it in this part of the state. In addition to working full-time on a cardiac step down unit, I am also currently enrolled full-time in the Family Nurse Practitioner program at UW-Eau Claire, and am planning to graduate with my master's in May 2011 if all goes as planned (fingers crossed!). After that? I guess we'll see what comes along...

That's me in a nutshell. Thanks for reading our blog!