Leading with Empathy: CSULB Nursing Students Honored with Manke Family Gift
For many college students, an internship is more than a line on a résumé. It can be a first opportunity to apply classroom knowledge, build professional connections and discover a career path. But for students who must work to pay for college, an unpaid internship can be out of reach.
That gap is at the heart of the Long Beach Community Internship Program (LBCIP) housed in the Academic Internships Office in the Center for Community Engagement at California State University, Long Beach. Founded in 2021 by College of Liberal Arts human development professor Dr. Beth Manke and her colleagues, the program connects students with local nonprofits and community organizations while providing financial support and professional development.
While at the core of LBCIP at CSULB is finding paid internships for students; for others, like student nurses, internships and clinical experiences can require long hours while leaving little time for paid employment. That is why Manke, along with her siblings, Jennifer Lee and Spencer Manke, are providing stipends for three special nursing students.
For Manke and her siblings, this giving opportunity is deeply personal.
Her mother was a nurse and educator who spent her career supporting students and serving her community. Manke recalls growing up with nursing students regularly gathering at her family's home and watching her mother lead with empathy.
“She was student centered, inclusive, all those words we use now, we didn't call them that then, but that was my mom,” Manke said. “Leading with empathy.”
Since many students studying in the healthcare fields, for example, already require clinical training, receiving no “token pay,” at the minimum for their efforts, it is the mission of people like Dr. Manke, and her siblings -- who used the funds from the estate of their mother, who recently passed away, to ensure these students thrive not only while they are finishing up their studies, but who are also well placed to enter the professional and practical world.
“You still have rent to pay. You know, and to eat, and, I don't know, buy a parking pass or a few books or something like that,” Manke said. “We’d like to provide financial support to nursing, social work, speech-language pathology, and other students in the future whose required clinical/field experiences are usually unpaid.
Dr. Manke met with the stipend recipients at the School of Nursing. She shared memories of her mother and explained a little bit about her work with LBCIP and her role on campus.
Students finding their purpose
For nursing student Jennifer Fong, the stipend opportunity is closely connected to both family and career.
Fong grew up in Alameda County and hopes to eventually return to Northern California to help care for her grandmother, who recently turned 100.
“I really want to give back to her and to my family,” Fong said.
At CSULB, Fong discovered a passion for maternal and newborn nursing. Her clinical experience at Long Beach Memorial, where she works on a mother-baby unit, has reinforced that goal.
“I just love interacting with the moms and the babies,” she said. “I've learned so, so, so much.”
For Fong, the demanding clinical shifts become rewarding because she feels connected to the work.
“It makes the 12 hours go by so fast,” she said. “I don't even feel like it's a 12-hour shift.”
Bringing classroom learning into the real world
Nursing student Jun Melchior said Dr. Manke's approach to LBCIP resonated with him because of the importance of translating academic learning into professional practice. He is grateful for the funds he received through the Manke family.
“You go to class and you pay attention, you do your textbook studies and stuff, but sometimes it doesn't translate to, like, your actual job,” Melchior said.
Although nursing students already receive extensive hands-on experience through clinicals, Melchior appreciated the recognition that students in different majors also need opportunities to apply what they learn. He plans to return to his hometown of San Diego after graduation and hopes to become an ICU nurse. Jun’s career plans are also influenced by his family and his desire to remain close enough to support his sister and mother.
“I think it would be nice to live in the same town as them and, you know, just be around to support,” he said.
From rejection to a vision for geriatric nursing
For nursing student Cobi Nguyen, the journey to CSULB and the nursing profession involved overcoming an early setback.
Nguyen was initially rejected from CSULB despite what he considered a strong high school record. He attended community college, reapplied and was eventually accepted.
“One of the biggest things for me personally was, I spent a lot of time as a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) at Round Tree Gardens [senior living community],” Nguyen said.
Working with older adults helped him discover a passion he hadn't initially anticipated.
“I realized that, like, after the first couple of months, even weeks of working there, I was like, wow. I think the geriatric population is … some of the most experienced, most deserving, most incredible people that I've worked with.”
Nguyen now hopes to work as an ICU nurse before pursuing a master's degree and becoming a geriatric nurse practitioner.
“I want to, like, you know, lift people and work with the elderly,” he said.
His experience also created a remarkable connection to CSULB's history. One of his patients had been part of the university's first graduating class and one of its earliest fraternities. When Nguyen told him he had been accepted to the nursing program after reapplying, the moment felt like a full-circle experience.
More than an internship
For Manke's Long Beach Community Internship Program, the ultimate goal isn't simply to place students in internships. It is to give them a platform where their existing strengths can become visible. That philosophy captures what LBCIP is trying to accomplish: not just creating internships, but removing the financial and social barriers that determine who gets access to them. That is a social paradigm shared by Manke and her siblings, who want to give back to the people and systems that brought them to where they are today.
Since its inception, the LBCIP program provides students with experience, mentorship and professional networks while giving local organizations access to talented emerging professionals. LBCIP participants have completed more than 25,000 internship hours, contributing an estimated $904,000 in labor to the local Long Beach economy.
For student nurses such as Fong, Melchior and Nguyen, the experience is also helping turn personal motivations into professional purpose—whether that means caring for new mothers and babies, serving families back home or advocating for older adults.
And for Manke, it represents a continuation of the values she learned from her mother: support students, serve the community and make opportunity more equitable.
