The 53 students that are set to graduate from the nursing program at Monroe Community College in June have received a generous gift before they jump into their field ahead of National Nurses Week.

"It's all been very stressful dealing with unknown situations," said Jordan Ovesenik.

"It's a very daunting price tag to know you got to pay for your license and you gotta pay for the boards," added Jacob Kueppers.

Ovesenik and Kueppers will no longer have to worry about that.

The Mary Porcari Brady Emergency Student Support Fund has announced a $50,386 grant for Monroe Community College. 

Part of that grant will go to paying for the boards for their entire nursing class.

"It will help us all get into the field even sooner and start helping people in the community," said Ovesenik.

"Boards are definitely more important than our licenses but to know that half of the equation is taken care of for us, it takes a load off our chests," said Kueppers.

Chuck Porcari – the son of the fund's namesake – says they are also paying for the virtual clinicals.

For Porcari, it's important to give back to the school that trained his mother to be a nurse in the Rochester area for more than 20 years.

"They are starting their professional careers in the midst of a terrible pandemic and anything we can do, any small part to help them through this journey, we are going to try to do," explained Porcari.

Although announcements of furloughs in the medical field because of COVID-19 add a bit of uncertainty, Kueppers and Ovesenik feel that MCC has prepared them to get right to work.

"I'm still excited to jump in. At the end of the day, I'm young and I'm just excited just to get a chance and even something may happen. I'm just excited to be able to work,” said Kueppers.

"Being in the hospital is not a great time. If I can be the change in someone's experience, that's why I did all of this," added Ovesenik.

Information on the support fund helping MCC nursing students can be found here.