Mount Saint Mary College nursing students Djenaba Balde (left) and Aniyah Lewis (right) display their certificates of completion following the 2025 Nurse Extern Program at Garnet Health Medical Center.
Some students step back during the summer months to recharge for the next semester, but Mount Saint Mary College nursing majors Aniyah Lewis of Highland Falls, N.Y. and Djenaba Balde of Wallkill, N.Y. instead stepped directly into the heart of regional healthcare.
Lewis and Balde – along with a third Mount nursing student, Emily Schneider of Rock Tavern, N.Y. – completed the rigorous 12-week nurse externship at Garnet Health Medical Center in Middletown, N.Y. before the start of their senior years. The program required them to work three 12-hour shifts each week, totaling 36 clinical hours. The students followed seasoned preceptors across multiple departments, including the Emergency Room (ER), intensive care unit (ICU), and Med-Surg units.
For Lewis and Balde, the externship served as a critical bridge between what they learned in the classroom and a full-time position in the field. Balde says the experience also helped her to discover her professional path moving forward.
“Nurse school teaches us the background of what you need to be to become a nurse, but it doesn't necessarily show us what type of nurse we want to be,” Balde explained. “So this externship, it allowed us to explore different specialties and just hone in on what we really want.”
While Lewis entered the program with an interest in emergency room nursing, the externship shifted her focus toward critical care.
“I came into nursing school thinking I want to be an ER nurse. But after this experience, I realized I’m really into ICU,” Lewis explained. “I’m seriously enjoying it because I know this is what I truly love now, and this is what I want to do.”
The hands-on nature of the externship allowed both of the students to perform assessments, assist with wound care, and witness the full scope of a registered nurse’s responsibilities. That kind of immersion was vital for building confidence for their upcoming transition into the workforce, Lewis explained.
“It may seem difficult, which it is,” she admitted. “However, I would rather learn this now than… figuring it out on my own without a trial run.”
As they prepare to graduate from the Mount this May, Lewis and Balde reflected on how they started the journey together through the Mount’s Nursing Bridge program as freshmen. After graduation, their paths will soon take them to different corners of the healthcare world: Lewis plans to relocate to North Carolina with her fiancé to work in maternal health units, while Balde intends to stay in the Hudson Valley to serve in local critical care units.
The college’s Center for Academic and Career Services (CACS) is often cited by Mount graduates for its powerful and practical tools to help shape their post-graduate portfolio. One example: helping students find internships and externships, so they can follow in the success of students like Lewis and Balde.