Jen Huynh, RN, didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do for a career when she entered college, so she took a meandering path through various healthcare and science majors instead of settling on one thing right away. For Huynh, that turned out to be an excellent move. Now she’s in the Graduate Entry Master of Science in Nursing program at The Ohio State University and excited about her future in nursing.
“I discovered nursing a little bit later into my college experience – I was already a junior,” she explained. Starting all over again to get a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree seemed like a long road, and she had already invested a lot of time and money in her undergraduate degree. “That’s when I discovered the Graduate Entry MS program,” Huynh said. “I thought, ‘This is perfect for my goals.’”
The Graduate Entry option enables students with a non-nursing bachelor's degree to earn a Master of Science in Nursing and become a nurse practitioner. People looking to pursue a new career in nursing have successfully applied to the Graduate Entry program from backgrounds as diverse as music, public health, business and English. Once prerequisites are fulfilled, necessary coursework for a master's degree can be completed in approximately three years of full-time, year-round study.
Huynh completed her undergraduate schooling as a Health Sciences major to complete some of those pre-requisites. Now in her second year of the Graduate Entry program in the pediatric primary care nurse practitioner specialty, she has gained licensure and can proudly add “RN” to her name. “Jen Huynh, RN. It has a nice ring to it,” she said.
“Growing up, I knew I wanted to go into the medical field – I’ve always had interests in science and medicine. It was just a matter of trying to figure out what path was best for me. So I bounced around between a few things,” including pre-med, biology and psychology.
She also volunteered and worked at several healthcare-related jobs. “It wasn’t until I started working as a PCA (patient care associate) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in 2020 that I was really able to gain insight into what was out there,” she explained. “Being at the bedside and working alongside nurses, seeing what they do helped me decide, ‘Hey, this is what I want to do, too!’” Huynh loves her job providing care to children as an RN in the Infectious Diseases unit at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In fact, because of the work, dedication and academic excellence she has already demonstrated, the Ohio chapter of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) named Huynh its 2025 Student of the Year.
Huynh said the Graduate Entry program has been “phenomenal. I think it really challenges me in ways that help me grow, and everybody in the program has been very supportive and encouraging. So far, I’ve learned a lot and I feel well-prepared.”
She cited many benefits of the program, including small class sizes, a tight-knit group of students who help each other out and professors who care about her personal wellness and check in on her regularly. “Most of us are working and some of us have kids,” she said. “The professors really work with us to make sure we’re getting all of our hours, meeting all of the requirements and are in a good place.”
Born and raised in Columbus, she had “big motivators” to go to Ohio State for graduate school. “I love Ohio State so much, and all of my family is here in Columbus. I feel like it’s a great fit. And it’s very highly rated,” she added, citing the U.S. News & World Report rankings for Ohio State’s pediatric primary care specialty: #5 in the nation, #1 among public colleges of nursing. “So, I know I’m in good hands in that sense, too.”
