ATTLEBORO, MA – Two former Shamrocks, Nicole Nadeau ‘01 and Jessica Ciak Sopf ‘01, returned to campus to speak to students about their career journeys. While Feehan has offered the 'Rock Talks Speaker Series for a number of years, this was the second Career Connection Rock Talk, specifically designed to help students learn from Feehan alumni about the pathways and work realities of certain professions.
Dr. Nicole Nadeau ’01 is a specialized Pediatric Emergency Medicine Attending in the pediatric emergency department of MassGeneral for Children. At Feehan she played volleyball, winter track, and softball and was on the peer ministry board. She attended Holy Cross on an Air Force ROTC scholarship and spent a year of college studying in Spain, where she learned to speak Spanish. After graduation she was active duty at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where she helped to lead disaster preparedness for the base. Nicole returned home to attend the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She completed her residency in pediatrics at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, where she served as chief resident. She completed her fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital.
Jessica Ciak Zopf, CPNP ’01 is a board certified Pediatric Nurse Nurse Practitioner at Pediatrics Specialists of Foxboro and Wrentham.. At Feehan she swam, was a Big Sister, and was in both the National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society. She earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from Bates and taught high school science in Colorado before completing her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating Summa Cum Laude. She previously worked as a registered nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Nadeau and Ms. Ciak Zopf reflected on their time at Feehan, shared their career stories, and answered student questions. In particular, they spoke about overcoming the many hurdles necessary to pursue careers in medicine, how rewarding their work in pediatrics is on a day-to-day basis, and other career opportunities available to those with medical training outside of doctors and nurses.
