I first met Ruth Penny while in our BATI skills class in my first semester of nursing school. She was the instructor everyone wanted when it came to skills-check-offs because she always made you feel confident that everything was going to be okay. Her smile and tone of voice is one you immediately trust and have no doubt you are in good hands.
During this year, in my second year of nursing school, I was fortunate enough to have Ruth as one of the faculty that joined our trip to Guatemala for our Population Health clinical rotation. Within a day of being there, her love and admiration for new cultures and new people was so evident. She is the most culturally competent and holistically caring person I know. She never let her judgment get in the way and always found joy in every circumstance we were in. She is the reason I push myself to unconditionally care for others and to never let past judgement get in the way. She encouraged every student to see the good in our trip and take away feelings and realizations to implement into future patient care.
There was no doubt that she believed in each of us without having to know our entire backstory. Having the extreme fortune to spend two weeks with Ruth in an underserved rural community in Guatemala was an experience that has changed me and will continue to change the way I live and look at situations the rest of my life.