A Maryland student’s dream of working as a nurse became one step closer to reality following an event that announced the opening date of Montgomery College’s East County Education Center.
During Wednesday’s presentation in Silver Spring — where school officials detailed plans to offer for-credit and non-credit classes at the new center — student Nneka Ndubisi met Anthony Stahl, the CEO of Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center.
Stahl handed Ndubisi — who will graduate in December 2023 — his card and told her to get in touch with him once she receives her associate degree in nursing.
The new center is the first step in Montgomery County’s expansion into East County — which includes Burtonsville, Fairland, Briggs-Chaney and White Oak — and expects to serve more than 1,000 students in the first year. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2023.
The 55,193-square-foot-space education center would be the third in the Montgomery College system and offer career training in health care, IT, cybersecurity and early childhood education as well.
Ndubisi currently attends Montgomery College’s Takoma Park-Silver Spring campus. The expansion, she said, would bring the classroom closer to job opportunities in the area.
“It would definitely give you ease in getting to class and having access to everything that Montgomery College offers,” Ndubisi said.
Ndubisi said before attending Montgomery College, she had considered a career in a different field, but health care, specifically nursing, became increasingly attractive to her. She called the nursing program at Montgomery College “rigorous.”
“I’ve definitely, along the way to academic success, been humbled, especially in this nursing program,” where she got her first B grade. She said before that, she had maintained her solid 4.0 grade-point average.
The pandemic deepened her commitment to working with patients. Ndubisi, who is Nigerian-American, said that as a woman of color, she could empathize with patients who have grown to mistrust the health care system.
“I’ve heard so many horror stories of people receiving inadequate care literally because of the color of their skin,” she said. She said she is committed to reassuring all patients that they will get “all the care that they deserve.”
When she’s ready to call Adventist Health, Ndubisi knows what she will be looking for.
“I want to work on the mother-baby unit or the labor and delivery unit,” she said. Her dream is to become a nurse-midwife with her own practice one day.
