As a high school student, Brinna Mulligan knew three things about her future and what she desired from an undergraduate experience: she wanted to attend a college with a strong Catholic faith community; she wanted to study Spanish; and she definitely did not want to become a nurse.
“My mom’s a nurse. So growing up, I was 100 percent sure I didn’t want to be a nurse because I wanted to go my own way,” says Mulligan, a 2022 graduate of St. Thomas More Academy in Raleigh, NC.
Now a junior studying for her Bachelor of Science in nursing degree at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Mulligan laughs at her change of heart. As for her other two desires, she has found both at the university and, in fact, has woven all three together in a beautiful tapestry of vocation.
As a high school student, Mulligan traveled to Honduras on a mission trip and, from that experience, became hooked on wanting to study Spanish. As a college student, she has integrated her academic interests by taking advantage of Catholic University’s unique Spanish for Healthcare certificate.
Mulligan has thrived academically, participating in a study abroad semester at the University’s Rome campus her sophomore year, studying in the Honors Program, and even writing a paper her freshman year that was published in the University’s student research journal, Inventio, and selected as a co-winner of the Phi Beta Kappa First Year Essay Prize.
I came to Catholic University because I wanted a Catholic school. I’m learning to really appreciate seeing faith as something you experience in community.
Mulligan credits St. Thomas More Academy for preparing her well for college, both academically and in helping her learn to develop mentor relationships with her professors. She explains that a number of her high school classes, particularly the theology and philosophy courses, were taught like college level classes.
“Coming into Catholic, I already had a pretty basic grasp of those classes, so I wasn’t trying to grasp something I’d never heard before and, instead, I felt comfortable diving deeper into the topics and asking more questions about them,” she notes.
As a college student, Mulligan appreciates the theology she is learning in her courses, as well as what she learns from the faith community she is surrounded by on campus.
"I came to Catholic University because I wanted a Catholic school. I’m learning to really appreciate seeing faith as something you experience in community. Also, I’m able to do adoration and Mass on campus. It’s all there, and there are always times when it’s available to you."
Whereas Mulligan made the choice to integrate her interests in Spanish and nursing by selecting the Spanish in Healthcare certificate, the University integrated the Catholic faith and nursing for her.
Mulligan explains that Catholic University’s nursing program is designed around the innate dignity of the human person and that this approach reaches into everything she will do as a nurse, including how she will treat patients and advocate for them.
“Nursing is a calling, it’s something you dedicate yourself to,” Mulligan reflects. “When you combine that with your faith, it definitely becomes a spiritual calling. That’s what I absolutely adore about Catholic: every class I take, they put a Catholic lens on that subject. It just makes it so much more valuable, because it doesn’t just go into your brain, it also goes into your heart.”
