While many of our current undergraduate students at York range in age from 18-early 20’s, I wanted to take some time to cover one of York’s mature students in the Georgian College-York University collaborative nursing program! Linda Carlson* is a middle-aged woman currently taking a semester off of school for health reasons, but of course, that doesn’t stop her from studying!
Linda already has a degree in concurrent education, and spent many years in her 20’s working in rural schools in Ontario. She had a passion for education and young children, and would even spend her Sunday mornings teaching young children at church as well.
Years later, she realized she missed being in university, so she put her passion for people and her interest in medicine together and applied to the Georgian-York collaborative nursing program! Despite administrative troubles because she had gotten her previous degree so long ago, she eventually was admitted to the program and threw herself into the work.
She found herself falling in love with nursing, and when her practicum came around, it became the highlight of her week. She knew she was in a field where she could find meaningful work.
Although she finds herself daunted by York’s large size, compared to the much smaller Georgian College-Barrie campus, she is excited to attend after her medical leave is up. In the meantime, she takes what courses she can online, such as Pathology, and studies the textbooks for other future courses so she can stay on top of her education, even from home.
She still misses being in class and is practically counting down the days until she returns to classrooms, to learning with her peers and to hopefully someday helping other people.
Until then, she solo-studies.
*Some minor details have been altered for privacy
Image Source(s):
https://www.change.org/t/york-georgian-bscn-en-ca
http://www.georgiancollege.ca/academics/full-time-programs/practical-nursing-pnrs/