At the age of 14 and with only a seventh-grade education, Elizabeth Guzman, now 36, dropped out of school to marry a man 10 years her senior. Faced with raising a family, she put any hopes of an education on hold.

After her divorce in 2001, she found herself in a deep depression as she realized she had no education or job skills. “And to top it off, I was a single mother with four children,” she says. “That’s when I decided to go back to school.” By enrolling at South Texas College in McAllen, TX, Guzman hoped to provide both a better quality of life for her children and an example for them to follow.

“It was extremely hard for me because there is a big gap between seventh grade and college,” she admits. “Boy, I still remember my first day in developmental math. I had no idea what the instructor was saying. I just wrote down everything that he would write on the board, and in the evening, I would ask my daughters to explain the math problems to me.”

But Guzman took advantage of the college’s tutoring program and persevered, completing an associate of applied science-nursing degree in September 2005. “Attending the pinning ceremony was the happiest day for me,” she said. “I was ecstatic to walk onto the podium and receive my diploma. My biggest goal was to show my children that despite the problems and turmoil that we have gone through, I did not give up.”

Two months after her graduation, Guzman passed the National Council Licensure Examination for nurses in November 2005. She currently is employed in Harlingen, TX, as a registered nurse at the Valley Baptist Medical Center’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

“I have a lot of appreciation for STC,” she said. “I’m thankful to the nursing instructors, but I’m more thankful to the instructors who helped me with my prerequisites to enter the nursing program. If it wasn’t for STC, I would not be where I am now.”