Amy Lenarz

I'm 28. I grew up in Richfield, went out east for undergrad, and moved back to MN to work. I live in south Minneapolis, in the Longfellow neighborhood. My boyfriend's name is James. He has excellent blood pressure, a low-ish heart rate, and a laceration-free scalp, but he draws the line at catheterization practice. I don't have any kids, just a kitty named Joba who you will all see in Linda Chlan's class someday.

I came from a computer science background, and used to work as a software engineer (a.k.a. computer programmer). For a few years I worked on updating educational computer games like Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and then I moved on to a more boring but less stressful job working on corporate sales and accounting software.

Even though everyone seems to want to push me into informatics, computers are not the focus of what I want to do as a nurse. A few years ago my book club read "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance Armstrong, a story about the Tour de France winner's struggle with testicular cancer. I had this epiphany, that here was this rich, famous, well-connected guy with dedicated friends and family, and yet they were still scrambling to understand his diagnosis and treatment options, unsure of what things would be like, having trouble scheduling appointments at the right times, worrying about how to pay for treatment... I decided that there should be experts who help cancer patients through all that educational and logistical stuff, smoothing the way so that the patient and family can just focus on HEALING. I realized that THAT was what I wanted to do with my life.

At the time I figured it was kind of a pipe dream, because who is going to pay somebody to do that extra work? But then I heard about a new program at Abbott Northwestern that employs nurses to do exactly that. It turns out there is a growing movement across the country to provide those kinds of services. So I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and go for my dream job. And now here I am in nursing school.

In my free time (hmm, trying to remember back to when I had free time), I like to read, cook, and hang out with friends. I coordinate a book club that calls itself a non-competetive book team. I love movies about spies and heists. And I go camping and backpacking as often as I can.

I'm both excited and overwhelmed by all the fun activities people have been suggesting so far. I must study slower than some of you, because I hardly feel like I have time or energy for so much extracurricular fun. Still, I hope to make it out to some of the social events in the future... just as soon as I finish this reading assignment!