Diana Yacoub, a senior here at Stony Brook, is anything but ordinary. She is one of the star students on campus who seldom has free time to herself due to her hectic schedule balancing school with extracurricular activities. Not that she minds, though. ‘It’s been a great ride,’ she says happily referring to her past years at SBU. A Nursing major, she is expected to graduate in May. However, it hasn’t been the easiest of journeys. ‘[The experience] was great,’ she says, ‘but I’m ready to be done.’ She adds, ‘I have an excessive amount of credits,’ referring to her multiple changes in majors. She has gone through pre-med, biology, and chemistry. ‘Nursing was the one that stuck,’ she says. ‘It just took me five years,’ she adds laughing.
While Yacoub may have been here for five years, she has not let that time go to waste. In fact, she has embraced her time and filled her resume with extracurricular activities. ‘I was quite ambitious in high school and it just followed me here,’ she says. She got involved through the Learning Communities program at SBU when she was a freshman. ‘We had to do extracurricular activities. I actually enjoyed it a lot and I just kept on doing it through the years,’ she explains. The list is extensive. Not only has she been an RA for four years but she also been a clinical assistant, student nurse, direct care counselor, laboratory technician, and vet technician, only to name a few. While she may have a done many activities, she has also devoted that much time and effort into everything she does. ‘Well, I love it,’ she says. ‘I love being involved.’
Being involved is only the beginning. Yacoub also believes that getting involved is the first step in becoming a leader and role model. She has had many opportunities to prove herself as one. As an RA, she has implemented educational and community awareness programs. She has performed nursing duties in the Surgical ICU and Pediatric ICU at SBUMC. She has also interned at YAI, Young Adult Institute, where she helps mentally disabled adults live on their own. She was even invited to be a guest speaker at the YAI/NIPD International Conference on Developmental and Learning Disabilities. Despite all the accomplishments, Yacoub has been very humble. She says, ‘I was lucky. I got involved.’ She adds, ‘It’s so important to get involved because you can do something good and watch your community grow.’
