When Nujerling was young, her family moved from northern Dominican Republic because of famine and lack of employment. Her new home was in an eastern, rural region with no sanitary system, drinking water, paved roads, or electricity. Her family only ate once a day, and her house regularly flooded. Nujerling attended school barefoot and shared a notebook and pencil with two of her brothers. She didn’t see any hope for her future.
But at 7, Nujerling (and some of her siblings) joined Compassion. Nujerling suddenly received school supplies, shoes and letters and gifts from her sponsors that made her feel special and important. She began to dream of studying medicine because she’d always loved helping people and animals heal.
Yet shortly before Nujerling finished high school, her father died of liver cancer — along with the little hope she had of studying medicine. Since her family couldn’t afford tuition, she settled for studying teaching at a public university that offered a scholarship. Every day on the way to class, she would cry.
But then she learned of a Compassion program that provided scholarships and leadership training. Nujerling applied and was accepted two months later! After graduating with honors in general surgery, Nujerling specialized in neurosurgery in Venezuela, later subspecializing in skull base surgery and cerebral endoscopy in Japan, becoming the first Dominican woman to do so abroad.
Back in the Dominican Republic, Nujerling dreams of creating a specialized neurosurgery unit in the eastern region that offers solutions to complex neurosurgical pathologies. She also wants to host motivational conferences for young people, especially women experiencing poverty and dangerous situations. She passionately speaks on self-improvement, the importance of seeing beyond obstacles, the power of faith and discipline, and God’s call on young women in a challenging world.
Nujerling currently works at CECANOT in the skull base unit, a national reference hospital for complex neurosurgical pathologies; she also works at military Hospital Ramon de Lara and central university hospital as skull base medical specialist and at MUSA, Regional hospital at the East neurosurgical medical doctor at the unit.