Student Spotlight
Frontier Family: Sisters Take the FNU Journey Together serious trauma as young men in war and were subsequently living on the margins of society. It was clear to me that the relationship she had built with these men was a part of what kept them engaged in care. I know now that what I was witnessing was the therapeutic relationship in action, and throughout my own career, I have come to value just how significant that relationship is to both client and clinician. With the rising number of mental health conditions and a nationwide substance use disorder crisis, I wanted additional training to be better serve my current patient population.”
Teresa Vlahovich (left) and Emily Hagy The last time sisters Emily Hagy and Teresa Vlahovich were in the same class was more than 20 years ago when they were in high school. “The last time we took a class together it was geometry. She was a high school freshman and I was a junior,” said Teresa, who is 20 months older than Emily. “I am pretty certain that Emily got an A and I had dropped out by October. As kids, Emily was much more studious than me.” Teresa’s modesty aside, both sisters have gone on to successful careers, taking vastly different routes to the same destination as they are both currently enrolled in Class 198 of Frontier’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP). When they took their first PMHNP course together in October, it was the first time they were classmates since high school. The sisters, who are the middle two out of four children, grew up in Tacoma, Washington. Their father was a nationally known wooden boat builder and his work took them to the east coast periodically. Now, most of the family, including Teresa and Emily, lives in Maryland. Their older sister is a graphic designer and their younger brother fishes salmon in Alaska.
Despite the close proximity -- Teresa and Emily live about two hours apart -- their careers have vastly differed until now. They were both inspired to some degree by their parents, with Teresa being drawn to their mother’s career as a nurse. Teresa, MSN, CNM, graduated from FNU’s CNEP program in 2013 (Class 78), after earning her BSN from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and has worked for most of her career in the FQHC setting. “I did not grow up thinking that I wanted to go into psych/mental health,” said Teresa, who now lives in Baltimore, Maryland. “I was drawn to pregnancy and childbirth early on. However, my mother’s nursing career did plant a seed. She worked most of her career in an outpatient day program at the VA hospital. The program primarily served Vietnam veterans with schizophrenia. She would bring us to work for holidays and I have fond memories of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the guys and helping with games and gifts. I still remember how touched I was by the supportive way that the patients related to one another in the group setting. I had never seen men relate that way before. My mother had years-long relationships with many of these men who had experienced
8 Frontier Nursing University • Quarterly Bulletin
While a health care profession always appealed to Teresa, little sister Emily was inspired more by her father’s line of work and she graduated with bachelor’s degrees in marine biology and invertebrate zoology and a master’s degree in marine ecology. “I worked with oysters for approximately ten years, conducting research and restoration in the Chesapeake Bay,” said Emily, who lives in Cambridge, Maryland. “People think that jumping from oysters to people is strange, but I view the careers as similar. Caring for non-human animals is not that
Emily Hagy (center) with older sister Laura Vlahovich (left) and Teresa Vlahovich (right), and their mother Paula Clark.
