About Julia and the Scholarship

Julia Stark-Fried was born on June 24, 1963. She grew up in Brentwood, NY with her parents Mary and Frank Stark, and her sister Dianne and brother Frank. She graduated from the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY with a degree in Nursing. Her first job was at University Hospital, NYU- now known as Tisch Hospital- where she loved working in cardiac surgery. It was there that she met her husband, Rich-who was a young medical student at the time- at the infamous Yankee game. They moved to Boston together, where Julia worked in the SICU and Cardiac Surgery at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, part of the Harvard Medical School system. On return from Boston back to New York, Julia became head nurse on her previous unit at NYU. She continued there until her daughter Lauren was born in 1995. She then decided to become a Nurse Practitioner, graduating from Stony Brook University. During school and afterwards, Julia worked in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at Stony Brook. Her second daughter Kimberly was born in 1999. Julia moved on to work as an NP at the Huntington Heart Center and Huntington Hospital Cath Lab. Julia always adapted her career to meet the needs of her family and always pushed herself to learn and grow.

Despite her busy, successful career, she continued to dedicate herself to serving her community. She found time to be a Girl Scout leader, involved in the PTA, President of the Elwood Education Endowment, and a member of the School Board of the Elwood School District. She was a great believer in community service and ultimately became the President of the School Board. Even with all of her work and service obligations, she always found time to be present for her family, friends, and neighbors. Her life was tragically cut short at the age of 56 when she died after a courageous 10 month fight with pancreatic cancer.

This scholarship was founded in her memory by her family to encourage students to follow in her footsteps - to experience the satisfaction of taking care of patients , serving the community, and giving his or her heart to others.