My Life After CSUMB: Nursing graduate takes on role in ICU

By Theo DeRosa

Flexibility is important for Cal State Monterey Bay graduate Ulises Hernandez. As an intensive-care nurse, his job comes with a variable schedule and myriad responsibilities.

Perhaps that’s fitting. Flexibility — on the part of CSUMB — was what helped Hernandez graduate with a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 2024, launching his young career. 

Part of the first cohort of students from a new collaborative program between CSUMB and Monterey Peninsula College, Hernandez achieved his bachelor’s from CSUMB just 2 1/2 years after beginning junior college at MPC. To the Monterey native, CSUMB’s ability to be accommodating to students interested in nursing, as he was, proved essential in getting his degree and, later, his job.

“It really allowed me to become a bachelor-prepared nurse, which is really the goal here in terms of the aim of the professional realm,” Hernandez said. “It was critical.”

Hernandez started working as a registered nurse at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in August 2024. In September 2025, he transitioned from a surgical unit into a role in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

“It was something that I was looking forward to even when I was back in nursing school,” he said. “I definitely saw myself doing a lot more involved care, and you do get a little more autonomy.”

Hernandez’s role at CHOMP — the hospital where he was born — has evolved over the years. After graduating from high school, he found work at the hospital as an environmental services technician. A stint as a radiology technologist aide followed, and it was then that Hernandez began taking prerequisite classes at MPC, working toward an associate degree in nursing.

While attending MPC, he received an email regarding plans for a new co-enrollment program with CSUMB that would allow students to receive a bachelor’s degree in nursing within six months of completing an associate program. Hernandez decided to enroll.

With associate classes at MPC in the morning and instruction from visiting CSUMB faculty in the afternoon, Hernandez’s schedule was packed. But the experience was integral.

“It was really successful,” Hernandez said. “Many of us who were enrolled in the program — I think it was about 20 of us — found it very, very beneficial.”

In addition, Hernandez received a Montage Health Foundation scholarship. That support, he said, made an important difference in his studies. 

After graduating with his associate degree and receiving his nursing license, Hernandez completed a semester of practicum at La Casa Adult Day Health Center in Salinas to complete the co-enrollment program. He measured his patients’ vital signs, kept them on track with their medications and answered questions about their care.

Being able to provide such direct aid to patients is one of the reasons Hernandez initially chose to go into the medical field.

“I wanted to really make people feel comfortable with their care by making sure they knew exactly what was going on,” he said.

Once he gains more experience as a nurse, Hernandez dreams of going to medical school, where cardiology and radiology top his list of potential specialties.

He praised the faculty and administration behind the co-enrollment nursing program that led him to CSUMB — an initiative designed to benefit students like him.

“It works,” Hernandez said. “I think our nursing force will really benefit from bachelor-prepared nurses, especially some who will decide to stay in the community. That flexibility factor is key.”