Kash Calderón ’19
Calderón is a pediatric nurse at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian in New York City.
In 2022, Kash Calderón ’19 landed his dream job as a pediatric nurse at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian in New York City, where he has volunteered since age 12. There, he gets to connect with young patients not only as a registered nurse but as an acrobatic Spider-Man: He’s been visiting patients dressed as the superhero since 2019 and he has continued, backflips and all, even now that he works there (while off the clock, of course).
At Muhlenberg, Calderón was a public health major and a Latin American & Caribbean studies minor as well as a first-year resident assistant (RA) and later, a hall director. He went on to earn his Master of Science in Nursing from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, the top graduate school nursing program in the country.
These are Calderón’s successes, but he’s equally open about his challenges. His GPA his first semester at Muhlenberg was a 2.7, and it took him four tries to pass his nursing board exam. He shares his story on social media (@mursekash on Instagram and TikTok) to reach aspiring health professionals who may be struggling.
“When you talk about your own failures, people feel comfortable talking about their own failures and feel motivated to learn and grow from those failures,” Calderón says. “It goes back to my Muhlenberg experience of not being the best student in the beginning and then helping first-year students, as an RA and then a hall director, navigate their academics and extracurriculars.”
“When you talk about your own failures, people feel comfortable talking about their own failures and feel motivated to learn and grow from those failures.”
Calderón began flourishing at Muhlenberg after he found a passion for public health. He knew he was interested in the health sciences, and the Introduction to Public Health course with Associate Professor and Director of Public Health Chrysan Cronin is where he found his niche. Public health’s interdisciplinary nature and its direct effect on the community appealed to him. He spent three years conducting research with Cronin on radon, a colorless, odorless, carcinogenic gas commonly found in Lehigh Valley homes. Calderón interviewed Spanish-speaking Allentown residents in focus groups meant to gauge awareness of radon and educate on how to mitigate it in their homes.
Cronin helped Calderón identify that nursing would play to his strengths: “I really do connect with my patients on a more personal level than the doctors do,” he says. “They’re assigned to so many patients on the floor that it would be very challenging for them to give each patient the same amount of undivided attention for as long as nurses do.”
Cronin also encouraged Calderón to apply to Johns Hopkins, where she received her master’s and doctorate in public health.
“I didn’t think that I was good enough to even apply,” Calderón says. “The Muhlenberg faculty, they’re very encouraging and they’re very supportive. They see things in you when you can’t even see them in yourself yet.”