ACC Alumni Spotlight: Tyhjae Hunter, LVN

Tyhjae Hunter wanted to be a nurse for a long time, and now she is.

Hunter said she decided to attend American Career College because she wanted to fast-track her career, and less than 18 months later, the recent vocational nursing grad is excited to begin the next chapter. At her September 2018 pinning ceremony, Hunter and others in her VN cohort proudly raised their hands when asked if any of the graduates had already received their license.

"I wanted something fast-paced, I wanted to get something quickly and ACC was like, 'We have this program starting next month,” Hunter said. "I started, and about a year and a half later, here I am, you know? I'm ready to start (working)."

How did you get you start in health care?

I started volunteering very young at a hospital. I started when I was about 13 years old. That kind of geared me towards doing patient activities and patient/nurse-type of experiences and I just loved it. I didn't want to stop and that kind of just geared me towards nursing to begin with, the volunteering. So, if anyone out there loves volunteering I would say get out there because that's the way to start.

What's next for you after graduation?

What is next? Well I am currently trying to get into Kaiser, of course. I feel like all the recent nurses love Kaiser — big corporation — but you know, just getting out there, getting my experience working with patients that I always wanted to work with. I know we had some good clinical sites out there. I'm just super eager and excited to start that experience that I've been so trained for.

What was the key to your success at school?

When I first started my clinical rotations, I was kind of the girl that was lost. I didn't know who to go to, who to turn to, and there were some people at our clinical sites that were very helpful. All the nurses were very helpful and I would say connections are a really big thing in the hospital setting. If you don't have someone to kind of help you through it, you're going to feel very lost, very scattered but I was helped through the process and that's what kept me keep going.

What advice do you have for new students?

Just go for it, you know? You're sitting there, you're not too sure but you have that passion — don't let go of it because it's calling your name and just go for it. You never know where you can end up and here I am, so go for it.

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