Faith and family help a Filipino nurse at YU’s Katz School achieve a dream

By Dave DeFusco

On September 19, 2005, Sarah “Cheeky” Arnaldo Arciaga, a clinical assistant professor in the Bachelor’s in Nursing program at Yeshiva University’s Katz School of Science and Health, boarded a plane for New York for the first time.

The moment should have felt triumphant—she had just earned a rare opportunity to pursue a  Master of Science in Nursing in the United States. Instead, her heart was heavy.

Back home in the Philippines, her daughter was turning 3, and her 5-year-old son was happily caught up in the excitement of his little sister’s birthday celebration. Leaving them behind, even temporarily, felt unbearable. Yet the journey that began that day, shaped by faith, sacrifice and determination, would transform not only her own life, but the lives of her family and the many students she would one day teach.

Arciaga’s path into nursing began years earlier in Manila, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1996 from Philippine Christian University, an experience that grounded her in the values of compassion and service that would guide her career. Even then, she believed nursing was more than a profession. It was a calling rooted in caring for others.

Her story took a pivotal turn when her mother noticed a small newspaper ad describing an opportunity through the Global Scholarship Alliance for Filipino nurses to study in the United States. Arciaga had not been planning to leave the Philippines, but her parents saw something more for her.

“They kept telling me my career would bloom more abroad,” she said. “I didn’t want to go. My priority was my kids.”

Still, her mother insisted she apply, and the two traveled three hours to Ortigas Center in Manila to submit the application. Arciaga passed the preliminary exam and was invited to an interview, where one question changed everything: if she received the scholarship, would she be willing to leave her family behind?

On the long trip home to Cavite, she told her mother the truth—she knew she could succeed academically, but she didn’t know how she could leave her children. Her parents gave her the answer: they would help raise them while she studied. That promise gave her the courage to continue.

While Arciaga pursued her degree in New York, her husband embraced the responsibilities of both father and mother. With the help of her parents, he ensured that their children were cared for and surrounded by love.

“If I relied only on myself, I would not have made it,” she said. “My strength came from my family and faith in the Lord.”

After earning her graduate degree, she honored her scholarship agreement and returned to the Philippines for several years to serve as an educator, sharing what she had learned abroad with the next generation of Filipino nurses. For her, the decision was simple. Her family was there and she believed in giving back.

In 2013, she earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Development Administration from Philippine Christian University, deepening her leadership skills. Another opportunity brought her back to New York, first to St. Paul’s School of Nursing in Queens, where she taught nursing fundamentals and pediatric nursing, and then to Long Island University’s Harriet Rothkopf Heilbrunn School of Nursing, where she taught several courses and led the Fundamentals Laboratory.

Mentorship played a key role in Arciaga’s journey, particularly through her relationship with Peggy Tallier, Ed.D., senior associate dean and professor of nursing at the Katz School, whose leadership style deeply influenced her.

At the Katz School today, Arciaga is a laboratory instructor. She also runs a biweekly open lab, giving students time to practice essential nursing skills. Students value those sessions so much that one described the opportunity as “VIP access” to their professor. For Arciaga, those moments matter. She isn’t just teaching technical procedures. She is teaching professionalism, compassion and dignity in patient care.

It’s in those moments—guiding students, sharing hard-earned lessons and shaping future nurses—that the sacrifices she made years ago come full circle. Her children are no longer the toddlers she left behind. Both are now professional registered nurses. When the family sits together at dinner, they often talk about their shared profession and the meaning behind it.

“It is a noble and stable profession,” she said. “Not only because of the career, but because you serve humanity.”

Learn more about the Katz School’s nursing program at yu.edu/health.