Cheryl Combs, 31
Riverview, FL

Ever since I was a little girl, I had a caring heart. … I decided, at a young age, to become a nurse when I grew up.

… As I got older, the more I became interested in the nursing field. When I mentioned this to my high school counselor, I was crushed when he said, “You’ll never get into nursing school. You better have a Plan B, because your grades aren’t good enough.” Those words stuck with me for years.

I decided to become a cosmetologist instead. Shortly after completing hair dressing school, my dream of becoming a nurse kept coming up in my mind. So, instead of continuing to be haunted by the words of my high school counselor, I developed an “I’ll show you” attitude. Now after years of working my way through nursing school as a hair stylist, I finally graduated last year from an ADN program. I am now a registered nurse working in a level 3 Neonatal ICU.

Actually it was not easy to get through nursing school … The first semester of nursing school went great. Then I started the second semester and I started noticing a nagging pain in my lower abdomen, along with intense bloating (it looked like I was 4 months pregnant). Well, I just ignored the pain and kept going. Then one night toward the end of that semester, I was buckled over in intense pain that made me cry.

I was rushed to the hospital … While I was in the hospital, it was found that I had an abdominal mass, so I was scheduled to have an exploratory surgery the following week.

When I was in surgery, the doctor found that I was filled with ovarian cancer. I had a hysterectomy at the age of 28 and I would be starting chemotherapy in 3 weeks. The doctor also advised me not to continue with school until after the chemo was done, which was going to be given over the next 4 months. Well, I was devastated that I had to put school on hold while my classmates where getting closer to graduation. Before my last treatment was done, I reenrolled in school wearing my wig and still feeling pretty tired from the chemo, but DETERMINED to graduate!

I ended up only being 1 semester behind my original class and I graduated in July 2006! … I want to go back to school to become a pediatric nurse practitioner. My first step is to get a bachelor’s degree in nursing, but with working full-time at the hospital and living paycheck-to-paycheck, the dream seems far away.

That’s where the online RN-BSN program will help me achieve this goal. I can still work and go to school … I am a very determined person and there is no obstacle too big for me to overcome.