Mary Alice Onorato and Ann Bonfiglio were recently honored by the Modesto Junior College Nursing Alumni Association with “Outstanding Nurse” awards. The purpose of the Outstanding Nurse awards is to recognize local nurses for their service to the community and for demonstrating remarkable dedication, kindness and generosity. Onorato, a professor of nursing at MJC who will retire in May 2010, was recognized as an Outstanding Nurse in Education for her excellence in nursing instruction. Bonfiglio, a school nurse for the Sylvan Union School District, was honored as the Outstanding Nurse in Clinical.
Bonfiglio graduated from the MJC nursing program in 1981. She worked as a registered nurse while pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from California State University, Stanislaus and eventually earned a Master’s of Nursing and a School Nurse Credential from CSU Sacramento. Bonfiglio began her nursing career at Memorial Hospital working in the oncology unit and later as the infection control coordinator. After ten years at Memorial, she became the director of nursing services for Community Hospice. She worked at Emanuel and Doctors Hospitals for a time. She was a member of the clinical faculty at CSU Sacramento, and in 2007 she began teaching at CSU Stanislaus. She teaches Issues in Nursing, Community Health clinical and is an advisor to Senior Students.
Bonfiglio is currently the nurse advisor to the Stanislaus Medical Reserve Corps. She volunteers with a Pioneer Girls group at her church, and with her husband, spent about five years with other members of her church building a Women’s and Children’s Shelter in Ensenada, Mexico. She also volunteers for the Salvation Army and was a founding member and vice president for the Central Valley National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. Bonfiglio is a member of the nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau and the California Association of School Nurses, and has served as president of the Stanislaus County School Nurses Association
According to Bonfiglio’s nominator, “She is a marvelous example of the Nurse Professional, she is knowledgeable, and she is a true leader in the nursing community. She is regarded and respected as a consummate professional. She is the “go to person” for guidance. As Ann enters her 30th year of nursing, it is fitting to recognize her accomplishments and what she continues to give back to the community of Modesto where she was born, raised and continues to live.”
Onorato grew up in South America, where she assisted an American doctor as a nurse and interpreter in Guyana from 1965 to 1968, before coming to the United States. She graduated from MJC’s nursing program in 1986 and helped start West-Care, Stanislaus County’s first adult day health care center, and worked as a registered nurse there for two years. Before joining MJC in 1991, Onorato provided nursing care for a terminally ill cancer patient at her home, volunteered to provide nursing care for an elderly friend suffering from diabetes, congestive heart failure and stasis ulcers, and worked at the West Modesto Medical Clinic for the Stanislaus County Homeless Program. She began as the part-time nursing skills lab coordinator in the MJC Nursing Program, becoming full time in 1999. In her 19 years in the Skills Lab she helped train and inspire hundreds of students who have become nurses. Along the way Onorato earned her certification as a Gerontological Nurse and was approved by the California State Health Department to be a director of staff development/instructor for certified nursing assistants. She has worked with the American Red Cross as a test evaluator to certify nursing assistants since 2001.
Onorato currently serves as president on the Citizens Committee for International Students that works with MJC’s international students and over the years, has hosted students from Guyana, Czechoslovakia, Nigeria, Mexico, El Salvador, and Germany in her home. In 1996 she volunteered to serve as a group facilitator for local Study Circles on Racism and Race Relations, a project of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemoration. She has served as a volunteer and board member of the Habitat for Humanity in Stanislaus County, and as a member of Habitat’s Nurture Committee, working directly with families chosen for Habitat homes. She was a founding member of the MJC Nursing Alumni Association and continues to work with this committee.
Onorato received Teacher Appreciation Awards from the MJC Alpha Gamma Sigma-Upsilon Chapter in 1994 and in 1995; was honored as a MJC Woman of Distinction by the American Association of women in Community Colleges in 1997; received an ADA Committee Certification of Recognition and was honored as an Outstanding Woman of Stanislaus County by the Stanislaus County Commission for Women in 2000.
In her nomination letter a colleague wrote, “Mary Alice is the quintessential nursing educator. Her genuine concern for every student who enters her lab has been a key ingredient in the success of students too numerous to count. Her commitment to safe practice and placing patients first is conveyed in every educational interaction she has with students. Thousands of patients are being cared for with compassion and competence because Mary Alice taught the nurses providing their care.”
MJC has been educating nurses in Stanislaus County for 45 years, pinning the first class of nursing graduates in 1965. In addition to recognizing local nurses with Outstanding Nurse Awards, the MJC Nursing Alumni Association raises funds for nursing student scholarships and for supporting the Nursing Program with needed equipment. For more information, contact the MJC Allied Health Office at (209) 575-6362 or Nursing Program director Bonnie Costello at (209) 575-6383.
