By Margaret (Peggy) Rosenzweig, PhD, FNP-BC, AOCNP®, FAAN ONS Scholar-in-Residence Every year as ONS Congress approaches, I feel a pull toward a meeting that holds a great deal of meaning for me professionally and personally. The 51st Annual ONS Congress, held May 13–17, 2026, in San Antonio, TX, brings us together once again at the Henry B. González Convention Center for five days of learning, connecting, and doing what oncology nurses have always done best: advancing our care and science while keeping the patient, family, and community at the center of everything. I am a Pittsburgh girl and have known ONS as a local, as well as national, organization practically all of my professional life. In fact, I ran into Pearl Moore, the first executive director and CEO, at the grocery store a few weeks ago! I joined ONS in the 1980s, when oncology care was exploding with new treatments and implications for patient care. In 1987, I was one of the first oncology nurse practitioners in my region in the brand-new world of bone marrow transplantation. I was not always sure of what that meant or where I fit. What I found at ONS Congress was that there were a lot of people just like me. They were nurses in a new role, a new specialty, and we were excited about figuring things out. That is so important. I felt welcome. I still do. Every year, without exception. That welcome has meant different things at different stages of my career. Fast forward to when I took the leap to doctoral education. As a doctoral student, ONS Congress abstracts, applications for scholarships, and the research intensive were expected components of my education. These types of specialty, scientific meetings were where I first learned to speak the language of science in a room full of people who were both rigorous and compassionate. ONS Congress was also where I developed a sense that the oncology nursing community was in my corner and rooting for me. As a new professor, and as I started exploring disparities in the delivery of cancer care, this is where I began to understand that the questions I was asking about who bears the burden of cancer in this country were welcome. There are other scientific meetings that address my core scientific areas, but ONS Congress is where my research ties back to our basic professional community. Now as a more senior scientist, what ONS Congress has come to mean to me is a little harder to name. It is the privilege of watching this field grow into itself. Of seeing young nurses, sometimes my students, sometimes others I know, present their first posters or talks and recognize in their faces the same nervous excitement I felt decades ago. Of sitting in a session and thinking, with genuine relief and genuine pride: Oncology nursing scholarship is in great hands. I want to say something specifically to researchers, because I think we sometimes underestimate what happens when we find each other. Pursuing the scholarship and science of oncology nursing can be a solitary pursuit. Although it is optimally a team sport, we spend long stretches of time alone at a computer. ONS Congress is where we discover that the question we thought we were the only ones asking is a question a community is asking. This year, many sessions are designed precisely for that moment of recognition. Check the ONS Congress schedule and the app onsite for exact times and places. On Thursday, “Funding Your Future: A Networking Hub for Nurse Scientists” gives early- and mid-career researchers a dedicated space to connect. On Saturday, the Research Proposal Power Hour, “Where Nurse Scientists Connect and Collaborate,” is another opportunity to find your people and push your ideas farther than you could alone. ONS Congress can spark a collaboration that changes the direction of a project. Or it can just be fun and much-needed recharge. We also have a panel discussion, “Expanding the Lens: Diversity in Nursing Research Roles Across the U.S.” (with lunch!) on Friday around the multiple roles for doctorally prepared oncology nurses This annual gathering is a generative process by which ideas become bigger and better than any one of us could make alone. It is where we confirm and commit to quality oncology research, including methodological rigor, meaningful measurement and analysis, and dissemination of results that will transform patient care, and ultimately policy, to reduce the burden of cancer. Sessions like “How Nurse Scientists Influence and Drive Care at the Bedside” on Thursday morning and “Role of the Nurse Scientist in Developing Nursing Practice” on Friday reflect exactly that commitment the persistent, important work of connecting our science to the patient's bedside. And if you want a glimpse of where oncology nursing is headed, make time on Saturday afternoon for the “ONS and AACR Bench to Bedside Lecture: AI in Cancer Care Streamlining Patient-Trial Matching.” This collaborative lecture is always popular. Oncology nursing has always been characterized by three things that I see on full display every year at ONS Congress: pride in our identity, curiosity about what we can do better, and, of course, fellowship. I am honored to serve as the ONS Scholar-in-Residence and grateful to be part of an organization that has given me so much over so many years. See you in San Antonio! Come find me. Let’s talk.