A Journey to Helping Others in Medicine
A bridge, specifically, Summerbridge (now known as Breakthrough), brought Celine Boutin ‘12 to the Derryfield campus in 2006. Encouraged by the Summerbridge staff, Boutin took the SSAT, and much to her surprise, landed a “solid score.” So she submitted her application, was accepted, and launched her Derryfield journey. Her love of science, nurtured during her years at DS, guided her into the field of medicine. Today Boutin is a nurse practitioner on the vascular surgery team at Concord Hospital.
At Derryfield, Boutin was a member of the debate club, wrote for the school magazine, and participated in several sports. She reminisced about her student days:
“Everyone seemed to get along at Derryfield–you could spend time with anyone–I had friends in many different groups. We also had sincere relationships with our teachers–we were encouraged to reach out to them whenever we needed help. I am so glad we were required to play sports–I never would have taken up rowing, a sport I came to love.”
After Derryfield, Boutin headed to UNH, intending to study philosophy while pursuing a premed curriculum. Her academic journey took a turn due to her friendship with several nursing students. She switched majors, jumping onto the nursing track. This afforded her the opportunity to start her career early; she had over two years of work experience as a licensed nursing assistant by the time she graduated from UNH in 2017.
Boutin launched her full-time nursing career at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, in the cardiovascular surgical unit. After two years at CMC, she hit the road as a travel nurse, specializing in cardiac and progressive care. Post-Covid she returned to NH as a full-time student at Rivier University in Nashua, where she obtained her MS in nursing. After completing her APRN fellowship at Lamprey Health Care, she recently landed at Concord Hospital.
When asked about lessons learned at Derryfield that she has carried into her professional life, Boutin replied:
“We were encouraged to reach out to our teachers via email if we had questions–not a two-line email, complete sentences in proper format. But they also emphasized that we shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help–we shouldn’t be intimidated by adults. This definitely instilled confidence in all of us–learning to advocate for ourselves. When I got to UNH, I immediately felt comfortable interacting with my professors.”
Boutin’s love of science, which started during her years at Derryfield, has carried forward into her career. “My desire to help people steered me out of the lab and classroom, and into a profession that offers so many opportunities for growth. I look back on my days at Derryfield with fondness and thankfulness for the many ways Derryfield prepared me for my future.”
