Maria Peña, RN, is late for our interview. As team leader of the emergency department at St. Helena Hospital, she has graciously agreed to share the story of how she became a nurse. When we finally connect, Peña apologizes profusely. She has been checking on a patient who was admitted to the hospital the night before.

It is this kind of compassion and personal touch that makes Peña great at her job. A job that she loves to do, but that she still can’t believe she has.

A Bleak Future

As a young child growing up in Central California, Peña remembers seeing nurses on television and being intrigued by the helping aspect of the profession. But she thought she wasn’t smart enough to be a nurse.

“I didn’t know anyone who was a nurse,” recalled Peña. “It was too far from my world. Poor people didn’t have professions—just jobs to get by and put food on the table.”

Peña got married right out of high school, and she and her husband moved to the Napa Valley where he took a job as a field worker in the vineyards. It was here that her life changed forever.

While visiting a doctor for a serious burn, Peña was asked if she wanted a job. Stunned, she happily accepted and soon began work as a secretary. She loved interacting with patients, but still didn’t believe she could be anything more.

The Chance of a Lifetime

Several months later, Peña took a second job working at St. Helena Hospital as a ward secretary in the emergency department. Her boss soon noticed Peña’s love for helping people and approached her about becoming a licensed vocational nurse. Peña was shocked when she learned that the hospital was willing to pay for her training.

“Of course I jumped at the chance,” she said. “I devoured my studies and became a straight A student.”

After she finished her schooling, Peña and her husband started a family. But it wasn’t long before the hospital approached her again with another offer she couldn’t refuse: SHH wanted her to pursue her education further and was once again willing to help financially. It was a long journey for a working mother of two, but Peña steadily took one class a semester, and after 10 years, she became a registered nurse.

A Life Transformed

“SHH has transformed my life,” said the bi-lingual Peña. “I grew up poor with no dreams. While I knew early on that someday I wanted to work in a hospital, I assumed I’d be a housekeeper — not a nurse!”

In April 2000, the hospital surprised Peña again when she was asked to become the team leader of the emergency department. In her current role, she oversees all the nurses in the ED, and her busy days are spent performing a combination of management and clinical duties. She also fills the patient advocate role at the facility and spends a lot of time talking with patients and families about concerns or questions they have. She loves being in an environment where she can offer to pray with patients during difficult times. Peña is deeply committed to her role at the hospital and takes extraordinary efforts to make sure all her duties are met.

“I feel an incredible sense of responsibility to this hospital for trusting me and seeing something in me that I didn’t even see in myself,” said Peña. “SHH is a little piece of heaven, and there are incredible people here doing incredible things.”