On a recent weeknight in Storrs,Naadu Adjoka-Nartey ’16 (CAHNR), ’24 MSN was taking a rare breather from work and studies. A second-year master’s student in the Family Nurse Practitioner program at UConn School of Nursing, Adjoka-Nartey also holds down a job as a tier III clinical nurse at busy Yale New Haven Hospital.
Between overnight hospital shifts, classwork, clinical rotations, and supervising Emergency Department techs and others in Yale New Haven’s teaching program, Adjoka-Nartey has developed a few ways to relax and recharge. One is to hit the bike path near her home in West Hartford for fresh air and exercise.
“The fun thing is I can listen to my lectures while I ride,” she says, laughing. “So I’m able to take care of myself but also not be crippled with the anxiety of not actively learning!”
Another outlet is Grad_BlackSTEM, a UConn student organization that regularly sponsors meet-ups, lectures, and networking events.
“We’re a community of graduate students who identify as Black and are in STEM majors,” Adjoka-Nartey says. “We try to provide a supportive place to connect academically and professionally. We have people in engineering, health care, earth sciences. We have people in mathematics. I think it creates a positive impact in the Black STEM community, but also at UConn as a whole. We’re better UConn students for learning from one another — and we’re better people in the community.”
Strictly speaking, club events are not entirely recreational for Adjoka-Nartey. She serves as the group’s president. On this particular evening, she was helping to put on a cultural exchange night, where members from around the world give brief presentations about their countries, share traditions, and bond over grad school experiences.
“There’s food and everyone is dressed up in their gear,” says Adjoka-Nartey, who was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, before coming to the United States as a teenager. “It’s one of my favorite events. It’s exciting just to celebrate culture.”
