'I am very grateful and proud of my time at USF and MSNS': Shane Yoshiyama

Shane Yoshiyama, BSN, EMT-B

Hello, my name is Shane Yoshiyama! I served as MSNS President from 2018 to 2020. In my free time at USF, I would go on runs through Golden Gate Park or the Presidio, rock climb at Planet Granite, and explore downtown for photography. USF presented the opportunity to seek my curiosities, explore new perspectives, and become the most fully realized version of myself I could hope to become.

What was the organization like before you joined, as far as you can remember?

I remember being so excited to join MSNS when I discovered the organization's profile on OrgSync my freshman year of college. At the first MSNS meeting I attended, I found so many potential mentors ready to help guide the way for a more enriching nursing school experience. Unfortunately, as the year progressed, I noticed the foundations around the organization starting to crumble. By the end of the Fall semester, meetings consisted of only a handful of people. I quickly recognized the need to get more involved to help promote and maintain the organization which harnessed so much potential. 

What sort of culture did you want to introduce when you became President?

When McKevin Regasa was president, he recognized the need to expand the scope of our organization to be more inclusive and comprehensive in what we addressed as an organization. Once as President, I continued that initial vision to make MSNS a gender-inclusive space to build community, explore the nuanced experiences of our different nursing students, and celebrate what makes us unique. By expanding our community we were able to provide more people within the nursing program to gain access to resources and relax among a group of peers.

What sort of changes did you implement during your time with the organization?

As I mentioned earlier, I established MSNS as a gender-inclusive organization. This expanded the scope of our organization and helped ensure sustainable membership numbers moving forward.  Additionally, I continued and built upon the e-board infrastructure that McKevin put into place. Positions that I introduced to the constitution included the Fundraising Chair, Cohort Reps, Membership Chair, and Health / Wellness Chair. These new positions helped make the organization more efficient, develop leadership, and provide unique resources to the nursing community not offered by other organizations. 

What did you envision for the club when you joined, and what did you try to make it into during your time as President?

When I first heard about MSNS and sought out the club, I thought it would be a nursing fraternity for male nursing students at USF.  This had a lot of appeal to me when I first joined. Although this was the intent of previous e-boards before, it quickly became apparent this would not be a model for sustainable organizational development. During my time as President, I wanted to make sure our organization was set up to continue and succeed for many generations of nursing students after me. By the end of my time at USF, my intention was to make MSNS a community for members to find comfort in the challenging nursing school environment. 

Lastly, what do you think of your time with the club? Did you do everything you set out to do? Are you happy with what it’s become after your leadership?

I am very grateful and proud of my time at USF and MSNS. I found some incredible friendships through the organizations and was consistently amazed/inspired by those I worked with. Nick and Nate always provided me so much insight into how I could improve as a leader and gave me creative insight into how to address problems as they happened. Jeffy and Toby helped pave the way for very unique and special outlets for MSNS through our membership development, retention, and professional growth. Part of me wishes I could have done more to establish a more traditional Greek org structure to help provide more personalized mentorship experiences, but that is something the next generation can tackle! I have a lot of faith that the next group of leaders in MSNS will do a great job in helping us grow and make a bigger impact in our community!