Seventeen nurses from the former Soviet Union came one step closer to achieving the American dream yesterday evening, when they graduated from an innovative program organized by Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a UJA-Federation beneficiary agency. The Program for International Nurses (PIN) was launched in October 2007 in collaboration with Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing with funding from the Baron de Hirsch Foundation.

PIN participants are foreign nurses who were unable to find nursing jobs once they came to America, and were forced to work as home health aides or other lower-paying jobs due to language and other barriers. After more than 160 hours of English as a Second Language training, along with rigorous NCLEX preparation courses, the graduates are prepared to pass the exam and begin working as nurses. At the ceremony, the graduates spoke movingly about what the course means to them and how grateful they are, and proudly applauded each other for their achievements. One woman thanked the instructors again and again, with tears in her eyes; another repeated, "This course is a miracle."