Activities such as having dinner with Holocaust survivors, speaking with community leaders, event promotion, and website editing work aren’t things the typical Viterbo student gets to experience. Senior nursing major Abbey Fedie has had these and other opportunities, thanks to three years as a D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership Student Fellow.

“I like being busy and involved—and the position came with a stipend,” Fedie said with a laugh about her decision to apply for a fellowship as a sophomore. “I remember interviewing via phone from my car as I drove from one of my jobs to the other. The fellowship has been great, and I’ve learned a lot.”

Fedie’s Viterbo University education has provided her with other unique experiences as well, such as a capstone clinical in the rural community of Bethel, Alaska. There she and other students experienced different cultures as they worked at a hospital caring for indigenous people.

It just so happened that all of Fedie’s clinical rotations were in a different hospital or clinic, giving her the widest exposure possible to different health care settings and systems. An internship with Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire led to a job offer as an RN on the neuro/pediatrics trauma floor, which she has accepted and will begin after graduation and passing the licensing exam.

Fedie has wanted to be a nurse since becoming a CNA during high school in her native Mondovi. She has been very happy with her Viterbo education.

“On the tour I just felt at home,” she said. “From the small class sizes to the impressive simulation labs in the nursing center, I had an ‘a-ha’ moment and I knew Viterbo was the right choice.”

In her limited free time, Fedie enjoys hunting, fishing, hiking, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

“I hope to work as an RN for the next five to 10 years and then evaluate whether to return to school and earn a graduate degree in nursing,” she said.