Turns out, third time’s a charm for SJNY Online student Denise Walsh-Horowitz, who is set to graduate next winter after originally enrolling at the University in 1994.
In her first go-around, she was a visiting nurse looking to earn a bachelor’s degree. But juggling work, family and school became too much, so she took a break.
Walsh-Horowitz returned to SJNY in 2004, picking up where she left off. But life intervened again.
“I was well on my way to completing my degree when my dad passed, and I had to move my mom to live with us,” she recalled about leaving St. Joseph’s in 2008 — just 20 credits shy of a degree.
After retiring as a clinical nurse and entering the Chaplaincy program at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Walsh-Horowitz finally found her way back again to St. Joseph’s last September. She’s on track to graduate with a bachelor’s in general studies with a certificate in religious studies in January 2025.
Her Inspiration
Walsh-Horowitz started her nursing career at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
“I’ve worked in different areas of the hospital, including the operating room at NYU, ER and trauma in Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, and Home Care in Brooklyn,” the certified end-of-life nurse and doula said. “My favorite area is Hospice.”
Her decision to become a board-certified chaplain stemmed from her experience at Memorial Sloan-Kettering.
“I worked nights and would always see this little lady running around starting at 5:30 a.m.,” the Fresh Meadows resident explained. “I asked one of my co-workers who she was, and she told me she was the chaplain. I was enamored by her ability to work with patients who were exhausted and so scared to be facing surgery, and just turn their faces into a look of peace by spending just a few minutes with them.
“I thought to myself, ‘I would love to be able to do something like that,'” Walsh-Horowitz continued. “I have always had her in my mind for so many years of nursing.”
After retiring, though, she felt she could not sit around watching movies and relaxing when she is surrounded by so many women doing important work.
“Being in this chaplaincy program is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done,” said Walsh-Horowitz, who still has an active nursing license. “As a nurse, you never have any time to speak to patients, but as a chaplain, there is plenty of time. With the loneliness problems in this country, I am always busy talking to patients. It amazes me that people don’t really get many visitors, so the chaplain’s visit is important to the patient’s recovery.”
Living a Life of Service
With S. Tesa Fitzgerald, CSJ, president of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Brentwood, as one of her close friends, it’s no surprise that Walsh-Horowitz herself lives a life of service like the Sisters.
“She inspires me to keep going with what I do,” Walsh-Horowitz said. “Over the years, I’ve watched her care for the moms and kids of Hour Children, and now for refugees in the Refugee Resettlement Program. It makes me proud to be involved with her and all these programs. Her leadership inspires me in almost everything I do.”
Both through her vocation — first as a nurse and now as a chaplain — and through her hobbies, Walsh-Horowitz is also constantly finding ways to serve those around her.
“My grandmother taught me to sew, knit and crochet,” she explained. “I belonged to a quilting guild in Manhattan around 2000, and we started to sew little toy animals for kids in shelters. Having been a doll maker and teddy bear maker, I started to make my own bears for kids in shelters. “
At the time, Walsh-Horowitz was working for the Department of Health and was in nearly every medicaid clinic in the five boroughs. She described the poverty she saw as overwhelming. She began making teddy bears for all the kids she saw.
This year, she passed her 20,000th teddy bear made.
“The bears have gone to shelters, prisons, churches — everywhere there are poor kids,” shared Walsh-Horowitz, who was born in the Bronx and grew up in southeast Queens.
She also makes quilt sets for pregnant women living in shelters; toiletry bags, hand-knit mittens and hats for the homeless; and she has redesigned sleeping bags and ponchos to better accommodate the homeless.
“My hobbies are turned into something besides a hobby, but something to help the people I share this planet with,” said Walsh-Horowitz, who is ever-appreciative of her husband for his endless support in everything she does.
