President and Founder of OU's MSNA

Alexandria Madry

The up and coming nurse has unified college nursing students by starting her own organization, the Multicultural Student Nursing Association, at Ohio University.

Alexandria Madry at her White Coat Ceremony, 2019

Alexandria Madry is from the Dublin, Ohio area and is currently living on Ohio University’s campus as a resident adviser (RA). Madry is also a junior in the nursing program. As a sophomore, Madry founded her own organization, the Multicultural Student Nursing Association.

Being in any nursing program is a hard job, but Madry said she finds it rewarding despite any hardships. Each person who decided to go into nursing had their reasons why. Madry had her reasons for wanting to be a nurse too.

“Growing up, I noticed that there were a lot of different diseases and circumstances that affected the Black community differently than other races,” Madry said.

Having researched the history of hardships the Black community has faced, Madry explained how she decided she wanted to help people in her future career. Madry said she was certain she would rather pursue nursing rather than become a doctor.

“I did more research and noticed that nursing has a lot more hands-on approach compared to what doctors do. If you think about it, [nurses] are the ones that are doing the assessing, we're the ones who are with their patients all the time; we have a bigger impact on our patients,” said Madry.

According to Madry, being so passionate about nursing and what nurses can do, she founded her own organization on campus, the Ohio University Multicultural Student Nursing Association (MSNA). MSNA’s mission is “to unify nursing students at Ohio University and acknowledge their unique needs,” according to the MSNA Instagram page. Madry explains this mission statement a little more when referring to “their unique needs.”

“Looking at our country's history, it's obvious that African American students are already put at a disadvantage, especially at a predominately white institution. So with that being said, [administrators] don't necessarily know the best way to advocate for Black students, because this institution wasn't built for us.” Madry explained.

Madry went on to discuss how there aren't many people of color in the nursing program she is in. Madry says it is difficult to get guidance from people who don’t necessarily look like her. She then went on to explain more in-depth about what she and her peers' needs are.

“So when it comes to ‘unique needs’, we sometimes need more help, and just more guidance. Our professors definitely try their best to help us with everything but sometimes you just need someone who looks like you to say, ‘Hey, this is what you need to do.’ Just to breathe life into you and encourage you,” Madry said.

The MSNA meets every two weeks via Zoom and discusses ways to develop professionally and what exactly it means to be a professional. The organization also discusses the historical events that happened with different multicultural nurses in history. The team sets goals for themselves throughout the year as well. At the beginning of every meeting, Madry says they do check-ins on each other just to see what and how everyone is doing.

With MSNA being fairly new, just short of two years old, it has been a bit difficult for their team to grow, especially during COVID-19. Madry explained how she reminds herself every day to “keep on keeping on.” She went on to say that last year, the MSNA was doing well with recruiting new students, but it is much more difficult when not in person.

“We’ve got a bit smaller, but I feel like we're still making an impact. We collaborate with a lot of different orgs on campus on different virtual events, which helps people start to recognize us as a group,” said Madry.

Madry discussed how it was fairly easy to create her own student organization on campus. She had to go to the student center and fill out paperwork to be approved, but it took hardly any time for that to happen. Still being a fresh and new club, there are many things people don’t know about the organization.

“I feel like when people hear ‘multicultural’, they think it's a group just for African American students, but this isn’t the case; it’s for anybody who is part of a minority group who can join. We're here to help people be successful and just advocate for the community,” Madry explained.

Madry has continued to make a difference through COVID-19 and hasn’t given up on her team that she had worked so hard to create and grow. Madry said she hopes that students will be back on campus soon so that she can continue recruiting and meeting with her group in person. Madry believes her organization has made a difference day by day and anticipates the team to keep moving forward after she graduates next year.

Until Next Time,

Mia White

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