SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY, VA– While growing up in El Salvador, Nubia Rodriguez always wanted to help people. Her family immigrated to New York in 2011, where she—as a young adult who spoke no English, with a foreign high school diploma— looked for any job she could find.
She met with limited success in retail jobs and realized that she needed to get an American GED. She studied hard, learned English, got her GED, and saved money for additional education ‘someday’. She enrolled in Nursing School in New York but the long class schedules conflicted with work, and she had to drop out.
Nubia’s family moved to Spotsylvania County where she continued to work hard and save money. In 2017, she decided to return to school but knew she couldn’t do it alone.
She searched for a nursing school on the Internet and Facebook and narrowed her choices to a large community college and a private college. She began to apply with the larger school, and after several meetings with staff felt that the ‘big classroom’ experience wasn’t what she needed and a more hands-on, low student-to-instructor ratio was best.
Next, Nubia emailed Eastern Virginia Career College’s Admission staff and made an appointment the next day. After a personalized tour, she learned that she could become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) in just over a year, and immediately enrolled.
She graduated in May, 2018 and was immediately hired as a full-time Charge Nurse at a local nursing home. She credits her completion of this challenging condensed program to the tireless support of her instructors, fellow students, family, and friends.
