Uyen Le and Linh Anh Nguyen met for the first time when they were randomly assigned as roommates in Norse Hall at Northern Kentucky University.

They’re both international students from Vietnam who had concerns about being alone in a new country, but that quickly changed when they got to know each other and realized how much they had in common.

In fact, during the last four years, they went from just being roommates to becoming best friends. And they’ve been inseparable ever since—because they also share the same major.

Le and Nguyen are both students in NKU’s Nursing program. Despite the difficulties of nursing school, they found solace in one another.

“I feel like having someone in nursing school with you that totally understands what you've been going through is a whole different experience,” Le says. “I feel very lucky to have someone like her to stay by my side.”

“We’ve kind of been through life together,” Nguyen says. “And she’s my emotional support system because we live so far from our family. Being in nursing school with somebody really close to you, and from the same background, is a different kind of support that I cannot find anywhere else.”

While Le and Nguyen hold each other up when things get rough, they also found great support in the nursing faculty here at NKU.

“I really love their support; it is unmatched,” Le says. “We have always felt included, and they’ve taken great care of us. They’ve taken care of every nursing student.”

Both Le and Nguyen have enjoyed their time in the program and the real-world experiences not only during their clinical rotations but also in the Simulation Lab. Those experiences will set them up for success after they finish their degrees, they say.

Le and Nguyen won’t graduate until December of this year, but they’re already thinking ahead. Le would like to go into pediatrics and has an externship lined up on the transplant floor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center this summer. Nguyen, who is a nurse tech on the neuro floor at St. Elizabeth, would like to end up working in an Intensive Care Unit.

“Being able to go to school in a well-built program means a lot to me,” Nguyen says. “This degree will give me a stable job. I feel like health care, especially nursing, is a stable career. It will give me financial independence so that I can take care of people and myself as well.”

Le agrees and is also considering the flexibility that nursing provides.

“The highlight of the job is taking care of people and helping sick people get better,” she says. “You can do that in a hospital or a doctor’s office. You can work from home as well. Nursing also gives you the opportunity to travel if you want to. You can be a nurse in a hospital for three months, and then you can end the contract and go somewhere else. I think that is a very big reason that some that people choose nursing—because of the flexibility.”