With roots in Miami and Haiti, this nursing student found her home away from home at Georgia State and took campus by storm.
MADLINA KNEW SHE WANTED to work in healthcare from an early age. Her family is full of nurses — including her mother, several aunts and her closest cousins — and she started learning the basics of patient care at 6 years old when her grandparents needed continuous care.
“I’ve been taking care of people all my life,” she said.
A first-generation American, Madlina Jonassaint grew up in Miami, Fla., where her parents settled after emigrating from Haiti in the mid-1980s in search of better education and opportunities for their family.
When her mother took a nursing job in metro Atlanta in 2006, Madlina came with her. She knew she wanted to follow her mother — who’s also her chief role model — into nursing but didn’t know where she wanted to go. On the suggestion of a friend, she came to Georgia State for a campus tour, and her mind was made.
“I felt like I was back in Miami,” she said. “I was in love with the diversity. I felt welcomed, like this was where I could find my niche. Coming here was the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.”
Madlina excelled as a nursing student, and her commitment to campus involvement earned her the Nell Hamilton Trotter Award, the university’s top honor for student leadership. A member of the Honors College, Alpha Lambda Delta, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and National Society of Collegiate Scholars, she took campus by storm.
She held leadership positions with the Quiet Storm Steppers and College Girls Rock Inc., represented the university as a 1913 Society Ambassador and Welcome Center tour guide, and was named the 2015 Homecoming Princess. Inducted into the Collegiate 100 of Atlanta in 2016, Madlina also served the community through her work at the Atlanta Food Bank, the B.E.S.T. Academy, Books for Africa, Hands On Atlanta, MedShare and Parklane Elementary School.
As a nursing student, she gained experience with patient care at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) and Grady Memorial and Northside hospitals. She’s already lined up a job at CHOA, where she’ll start work in January as a clinical nurse specializing in thoracic surgery.
With a long-term goal of becoming the chief executive officer of a major hospital, Madlina is working on her registered nurse license and preparing to return to Georgia State to pursue a master of public health degree. She knows she still has a long way to go, but that only motivates her to “continue to push forward and do better.”
“As a little girl growing up in a family of immigrants, I never thought I had a place in this world,” she said. “It wasn’t until I came to this dynamic campus that I was able to discover myself and what I could do — personally, academically and professionally. I couldn’t be more grateful to call Georgia State my home.”
Written by Benjamin Hodges
Photo by Steven Thackston
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