Saint of Santa Fe | Lavonia Merrell

May 24, 2021

"While I was working on my bachelor's in Health Services Administration, I took a diversity and inclusion class. That led me to make a commitment to be involved in diversity – promoting it and learning more about it. I set a goal to continue to do that in my career. I got accepted for a leadership role in the diversity and inclusion council where I work at the VA. We're working very hard to apply those lessons of diversity and inclusion in our health care system by promoting an understanding of unconscious biases. I consistently apply what I learned in Diversity and Unconscious Bias course at SF.

The bachelor's program at SF is a great program. The online experience gave me the opportunity to balance classes with my work schedule, which was critical. The support I got from the instructors and advisors, everything - it was perfect and it helped me to reach my goal. One thing I really appreciated was that SF made sure classes continued no matter what number of students were signed up. That allowed me to consistently take the classes I needed and complete my program. I've had in-person and online classes and both are great. Having in-person contact helped me to be able to network with people moving toward the same goals that I have. But that online experience gave me that opportunity to balance classes with my work schedule, which was critical."

• Lavonia Merrell
  B.A.S. in Health Services Administration