d'mensions/the d'youville college Journal summer 2oo6

’08
Lorene Keem ’08
Graduating from Gannon University in Erie,
Pennsylvania, with a degree in theatre and a
minor in business administration, Lorene Keem
could see herself in the theatre. It was her passion!
She had been acting and singing since childhood to make people happy.
It was a world that beckoned with all its allure.
This medium would enable her really to have an impact on people’s lives
if only for a few short hours or an evening. Her credentials enabled her
to be hired and she happily appeared in vehicles such as Godspell and
Jonah. She even did a stint as a costume designer.
After two years of being “in the theatre,” but waiting endlessly for the next
call and going from contract to contract, she decided that perhaps theatre
was not the only means to enhance peoples’
lives. It was then that the epiphany occurred.
Nursing was another avenue one could take
that would empower one to affect lives—
make them happier—help them to feel better.
Lorene met a D’Youville admissions
counselor by chance and she was so
impressed that she visited the college and
liked what she experienced.
Nursing provides innumerable career paths
which one can take to achieve worthy goals.
As she enters her fourth year, the idea of
becoming a nurse practitioner midwife has
strong appeal. The notion of interacting with
the whole family, not just the mother giving
birth, she finds captivating. She has observed
midwives at work and knows that it is
something which she truly wants to pursue.
Actively involved on campus, Lorene is
president of the Student Nurses Association
and is a mentor for the Touch Lives—Be
A Nurse Program. This program involves
going out into the community to educate
elementary school students about the advantages of studying nursing and
the great work of healing in which nurses are involved and, especially, the
many career opportunities open to nurses.
Growing up in Erie with not only her parents and her older brother, but
also a cadre of extended family, Lorene says that D’Youville is “just right
for me. When I first visited the campus, I was immediately struck by the
family feeling of the school. Everyone was so welcoming and made me feel
very much at home.” She thoroughly enjoys and respects the faculty whom
she describes as extremely knowledgeable. They know everyone in the
program. “We are not just a number or a face in a class of fifty or sixty.”
Lorene Keem’s goals in a sense have not changed. There really is not
a great stretch changing from performing on a stage to help people
laugh and forget their day-to-day worries and challenges to working in a
hospital/clinic setting to help patients feel better, treating them to alleviate
their pain and discomfort.
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