By Sonia Cline
My daughter and I moved to Charleston in 2011, to become college roommates. She transferred to College of Charleston, and I began my studies at Trident Tech. It was slow going at first, working two jobs, over sixty hours each week, plus a full-time course load. Finally, in December, I felt confident resigning from my day job, and rounded out the fall and spring semesters with my required lab sciences. This fall, I finally enrolled in my first nursing courses, and I am so excited to continue this journey!
As a single mom, I feel like I have wasted twenty years, being too stubborn to accept welfare or child support. I look at my predominately twenty-something nursing classmates, and I envy them. I never miss an opportunity to tell them how blessed they are to have this opportunity, and how important it is to follow through NOW. When we are young, we ignore the adults who try to tell us not to squander our years. I hope they hear me. Their lives can be so different. Their paths can be so much easier.
Trident has given me the opportunity to start over. When I was younger and overwhelmed with life, I neglected to properly withdrawal from my classes. Trident gave me the opportunity to re-set, re-do, re-take, and revive my academic career. Thanks to some of the wonderful instructors I have had the pleasure of learning under, I now have a nearly perfect GPA, heading into the nursing program, and that’s huge. With aspirations of attending a Nurse Anesthesia program, I certainly needed the excellent instruction and leadership that I found at Trident. The reputation of our nursing program extends even beyond Charleston. I have already made friends within the program, and look forward to participating in Trident’s chapter of the Student Nurse Association, another Trident “group” whose reputation for excellence, academics and leaderships, precedes them.
Next fall, I plan to pursue an LPN position at MUSC or Roper hospitals, moving directly into an RN position, as soon as I am licensed. As I mentioned, I suspect that the reputation of the Trident Nursing Department may open doors, and create opportunities, that may not otherwise be there. I have heard time after time that both employers, as well as graduate level nursing specialty programs, recognize Trident nurses to be among the best. They respect that if we have been academically successful here, we are fully prepared to enter into any position or program.
I am not certain that teaching is in my future, I’m more of a doer, than a teacher. However, I would love to have the opportunity to serve as a preceptor for future Trident student nurses. Even earlier than college-level, I believe that high school students, especially young mothers, would do well to have a successful role model to guide them academically. I would love to someday be a liaison between Trident’s nursing program, and local high school students. They need to see circumstances that they can relate to. They need to hear your story, and know that “you get them”. Those conversations could make all the difference, and I would love to be that bridge.
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