Back for their future

To advance their careers, non-traditional students turn to health care

Their backgrounds may differ, but they share a common desire: to help other people through the health-care profession. But unlike most students entering the University of Mississippi Medical Center this fall, these “non-traditional” students already had established careers in other fields.

All earned degrees in various professions ranging from computer and electrical engineering to taxation law, so it was no easy task for some to work full-time and obtain the prerequisites needed to enter health education.

They plan to rely on life experiences and renewed purpose to guide them as they continue their education at the Medical Center.

From teaching to learning

With a geologist dad, an IT specialist mom and a brother in mechanical engineering, Hanna Johnson knew from an early age she couldn’t escape science.

What surprised her was her love of teaching.

Now, after two years of teaching at a Jackson-area high school, Johnson is enrolled in UMMC’s School of Graduate Studies.

With a doctoral degree in biochemistry, Johnson, a Madison native, hopes to someday grab a professorship and teach undergraduate or graduate-level students.

“When I graduated undergrad, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Teaching had never really entered my mind,” she said.

Her bachelor’s in biology from Mississippi College outfitted her to teach upper-level science classes at University Christian School in Flowood. Though the experience came with its own set of challenges - including having to build a façade as a stern, cold disciplinarian while occasionally being mistaken for a student - she took wholeheartedly to teaching.

“I knew I had to give it two years because, as they say, your first year you’re just learning how to control a classroom,” Johnson said.

“I took some advice I was given and didn’t smile for the first two weeks. When you enter the classroom at 22 years old and you’re teaching 18-year-olds, you have to establish your reputation as firm and no-nonsense. Once you have that, you can ease up and have fun.”

Her doctoral program at UMMC will take four-to-six years of study and research.  — JM

Finding art in dentistry

Will Jones was a year into graduate school training at the University of Tennessee after earning a B.S. in chemistry from Mississippi College when he realized that he didn’t want to spend his life as a research chemist.

“It really wasn’t my cup of tea to be stuck in a lab all day,” the Brandon native said. “I started thinking the grad school routine wasn’t for me.”

Instead, a career in dentistry captured his interest.

“I want to have the opportunity to help people,” he said. “And dentistry is still a scientific field, but there’s also artistry involved as well as dealing with people.”

More than a year ago, Jones withdrew from grad school, and he and his wife moved back to Mississippi. But then he had a year’s wait before being accepted into the dentistry program at UMMC.

To make ends meet, he returned to his alma mater, East Rankin Academy in Pelahatchie, where he found work teaching chemistry, biology and world history classes.

Now he’s back on the receiving end of coursework, having just begun his first semester in the School of Dentistry.

“I think it helped to prepare me,” he said of his teaching experience. “I was always preaching to my kids about studying.” —MW

Engineering a new career

Heather Douglas couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing in her life.

The 31-year-old married mother of three boys had become successful as an engineer for a Nissan supplier, moving up to manufacturing manager over a six-year period.

“I was working all the time, missing time with my family, but I wasn’t enjoying engineering,” she said.

About two years ago, her desire for fulfillment and her newfound purpose collided. Her mother passed away after a battle with breast cancer.

“Someone who really mattered to my mom was her oncologist,” Douglas said. “I wanted to go work every day to make a difference in someone’s life.”

That’s when she decided to become a doctor. She had to complete prerequisites in science at night.

Douglas’ first love is mathematics. The Louisiana native earned a spot in the gifted program at her school. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a double major in computer and electrical engineering.

“When you’re in school, they make you feel like you’re going to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “In the real world, you spend all your time fixing the wheel.”

Douglas didn’t mind returning to college to pursue her medical career. She considered it a privilege to be able to follow her dreams, and she said she felt comfortable starting her new career at UMMC.

“This is how I want to feel all the time,” she said.  —PSG

Raising the bar

Richard Webb began first-year medical school orientation on a Wednesday. Two days earlier, he was in Madison County Justice Court helping a client.

A Mississippi State University graduate, Webb entered law school at Mississippi College in 2004. While he was there, he realized he wanted to become a physician.

He decided to complete law school rather than leave.

“I wanted to finish what I started,” he said.

Webb continued to the University of Florida to complete the LL.M. in taxation, then returned to Mississippi to work at a Jackson law firm. Still, the desire to become a doctor remained.

“I’m not going to say that lawyers are bad. It’s a good profession, but it’s not what I want to do when I am 75 years old,” Webb said. “There are very few careers that combine the mental stimulation and the ability to help.”

Over two years, the married father of two girls began acquiring the prerequisites needed for medical school while working full-time. Although being away from his family is difficult, as a non-traditional student, he said he has developed the time-management skills and work ethic that’s needed to succeed.

“From the moment you wake up, everything is done to maximize your time,” he said.  – PSG

Weathering the storm

Just when Phillip Conn began his journey on the road to a new career, Hurricane Katrina detoured his plans.

The Pascagoula native had enrolled at the University of Mississippi to begin pharmacy school in August 2005, and he was two weeks away from closing on the sale of his paint and flooring business. Then, the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast.

“I had to withdraw, leave and go home because I had 4 feet of water in my house in Pascagoula. It destroyed my business,” he said.

For the next year, Conn put the pieces back together while living in a FEMA trailer. He credits “faith, friends and family” as the support that helped him return to his dream.

He returned to the University of Mississippi in August 2006, and in 2007, he received the Courage in the Face of Adversity Award from Ole Miss for overcoming his hardship.

Conn, who has a degree in management information systems from the University of Southern Mississippi, began his fifth year of pharmacy education at UMMC this month.

“I made the right decision going back. It was hard, but it’s going to be worth it.”

In his spare time, Conn plans to volunteer on mission trips and natural-disaster events, when needed. “A lot of people came and helped me during the storm. I thought about it a lot and I wanted to find a why to help people like they helped me,” he said.  – PSG

Technical Support

Only two weeks into the 15-week Accelerated B.S.N. program, Becky Little considered dropping out.

Dealing with the intensive coursework on top of her 4-year-old son’s broken leg was enough to make her walk out of a lecture in May.

Teary phone calls to her mother, husband and mother-in-law  ended with the same result: They told her to go back to her classes.

Now three months in, Little feels more goal-oriented. “When I get out of school I want to work for UMMC,” she said.

The Monticello native earned her B.S. degree from the University of Mississippi but ended up working a variety of jobs in the computer science field, ranging from programming to client technical support.

She welcomed the challenge that came with the job, but hated missing family events. After getting laid off, she went to work for a competitor; when the economy took a tumble, she began to re-evaluate.

With a mother-in-law who went into nursing in her middle years as a role model, Little soon found herself taking nursing prerequisites at Holmes Community College. Now she’s already planning to pursue her master’s degree in nursing.

“The instructors here are phenomenal,” Little said. “They genuinely care about you and support the fact that you’ve chosen this as your profession.” —MW

-Patrice Sawyer Guilfoyle, Jack Mazurak and Matt Westerfield

2009-08-17 00:00:00 18966