Photo courtesy of LaGuardia Community College.
Dec. 20, 2024 By Shane O’Brien
LaGuardia Community College is inviting internationally-trained nurses living in New York City to apply for the NYC Welcome Back Center, a tuition-free program that helps nurses transition into the US healthcare sector as Registered Nurses.
The program, which is open to New York State residents authorized to work in the US, allows students to take classes to improve their English language skills and prepares them for the national licensing exam that all Registered Nurses must pass.
The program’s next cohort begins in February 2025 and is provided through a partnership between LaGuardia’s Continuing Education program and its Health Science Department.
Classes are team-taught by ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) instructors and faculty from LaGuardia’s Nursing Program.
The program aims to allow students to improve their English skills while also refreshing their nursing knowledge and comparing the US workplace to their home countries.
Classes will be held at night from 6-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday to accommodate working students. Throughout the program, students will be eligible to receive case management, support services, and referrals to educational, community and professional programs and organizations.
Sunil B. Gupta, vice president of Continuing Education at LaGuardia, said the NYC Welcome Back Center helps meet the city’s need for a culturally and linguistically diverse workforce.
“It helps skilled immigrant professionals overcome credentialing and language barriers, enabling them to contribute their talents to the NYC workforce where they are in demand,” Gupta said in a statement.
Mamata Dhakal, a nurse from Nepal who became a Registered Nurse in the US with the help of the NYC Welcome Back Center, praised the program’s impact.
Dhakal, who moved to the US in 2007, worked as a college assistant, babysitter, and private tutor but said she longed to join New York’s healthcare workforce. She spoke of how she enrolled in the NYC Welcome Back Center, where she improved her English language skills and passed her national licensing exam to become a Registered Nurse in the city.
“LaGuardia has helped me in each and every moment to learn English, earn a degree and become a Registered Nurse,” Dhakal said in a statement.
Mamata Dhakal pictured with her parents. Photo: LaGuardia Community College.
Anyone interested in applying for the NYC Welcome Back Center must do so before the program’s application deadline, Jan. 31, next year.
Click here to learn more about Welcome Back Center and eligibility. Anyone with questions about the program is advised to visit LaGuardia’s NYC Welcome Back Center webpage, email nycwbc@lagcc.cuny.edu, or call (718) 482-5460. The office, located in LaGuardia’s C-Building Room C-239, 29-10 Thomson Ave., is open for walk-in visits Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
The NYC Welcome Back Center is part of LaGuardia’s Center for Immigrant Education and Training (CIET), which LaGuardia says has helped thousands of recent immigrants and their families improve their English language skills and get trained for job opportunities since its founding more than two decades ago.
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