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May 14, 2008
“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try,” according to B.J. Kerley, 25, a May 13th graduate of the Associate Degree Nursing program at Davidson County Community College.
This is the advice he gave his sister, Jennifer Kerley Leonard, three years ago, when he decided to enroll at DCCC to pursue a career as a registered nurse. He suggested his sister do the same, but she thought she was too busy working and mothering four children.
The brother and sister worked at the family business, Kerley’s Barbecue in Welcome, and Leonard, 33, first thought her family commitments would not allow her to become a full-time college student.
Leonard’s four children, ages 15, 13, six and four, always came first, so her husband Jason, and her parents, Buddy and Brenda Kerley, all agreed to support her if she decided to join her brother in nursing school which they did in August 2006.
“I chose to come back to school to pursue my dream of becoming a nurse after working 20 years in the restaurant business,” said Leonard. “I am so glad I did because now that I am graduating, I will get to devote more time to my family. It has all been worth it.”
Leonard and her brother both have jobs at Forsyth Hospital on third shift, she on the eighth floor pulmonary department, and he on the ninth floor medical-surgical unit. Just like they studied together, they will commute to work together.
“I thank my family for sacrificing so much for me. I would not have made it without my classmates, especially my brother,” Leonard said. “I also want to thank the staff at DCCC. They are committed to the education of their students, and they truly want to see us succeed.”
Both are graduates of North Davidson High School, and they took their nursing pre-requisite programs prior to being accepted in the competitive A.D.N. program at DCCC. They took a combination of on-line and face-to-face traditional courses in English, math, psychology, and communication as well as anatomy and physiology, their most challenging course. Throughout the two-year program, the siblings studied together.
“We are like best friends; we do a lot of stuff together,” said Kerley. “This program has given me so much more than education. It has given me self-esteem, friends, and a sense of belonging,” he said.
In the future, they both are considering pursuing their baccalaureate degrees in nursing since Winston-Salem State University holds an evening program on the DCCC campus with classes meeting one night a week.
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