Jasmine Celina Lazaro of BS Nursing Class 2016 finished 9th in the most recent Nurse Licensure Examinations (NLE) as per the official results release by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and Board of Nursing (BoN) last June 17, 2016.

Jasmine, President of Southville International Organization for Nursing students (SION), got a rating of 85.20 percent to place 9th in the Nursing Licensure Examination. All of her classmates in Class 2016 also passed the board exams, garnering a 100 percent passing rate and making Southville the best performing nursing school in the South of Metro Manila.

“I took up Nursing because my grandmother is a nurse in the US. I would wait for her come home in her scrubs and listen to her stories. I highly regard nurses and I have always wanted to be one. Southville trained me to become a diligent and responsible student, values that are important in being a nurse,” Jasmine says.

In her Facebook post, Jasmine thanked her alma matter, Southville International School and Colleges, her teachers, Dean Carmel Villegas, Liza Jimenez, Ms. Astrid Moreno De Leon and the rest of the faculty of the College of Nursing for instilling in her a good foundation of knowledge, skills, leadership and character.

Jasmine also added in a special correspondence that her Southville education turned her life around, from being a quiet shy high school girl into an org president rendering a rap number in a school Christmas party.

“I was the quiet type in high school but ever since I started college in Southville, things have changed for me. My teachers, especially Dean Carmel, believed that I could top the Nursing board exam. She inspired me to do my best. Ms. Liza pushed me to become a leader; she took me out of my comfort zone and made me president of the student organization for nursing. Being in charge of an important school organization catapulted me into becoming a person who wanted to achieve higher goals like topping the board exam.”

The SION President expressed how she lived by the Southville culture of Character, Competence, Collaboration, Creativity and Commitment to Achieve (5Cs) and how she relates the most with Character. Jasmine believes that without a good character, one would not be able to excel in the other C’s. One needs to start discipline and excellence in oneself first before anything else to succeed.

“I prepared for the board exam by studying day and night every day. I ask God that I want to ace the board exams. I believe in Him and then I believe in myself. Never doubt yourself.”

A good balance of rest and study is the secret for a productive review, according to Jasmine.

“Get enough sleep: 6 hours is good. Talking to yourself helps, too. Reading and hearing concepts increases the ability to retain the knowledge.”

Jasmine joins the growing list of SISC board topnotchers that include John Anthony Ngo and Gino Guerrero in the 2015 and 2013 NLE, and Renally Bianca Pariñas and Inez Chiara Cortez in the 2013 and 2015 LET, all of whom made Southville very proud and will surely make a difference in their chosen fields.