Spenser Streml had headed to Flagler College in St. Augustine with high hopes. She’d graduated from Merritt Island High School in 2007 with a jump-start thanks to college credits from AP classes.
Almost immediately, the college experience spiraled downward.
“I had missed a midterm in one class,” said Spenser. He recalls feeling out of place and driving home to Brevard County almost every weekend to see family and friends. “I wasn’t getting good grades, and I ended up withdrawing near the end of the semester. That was devastating because I had always succeeded. It was disheartening, but I don’t think I was ready to go straight into college.”
She moved back home and signed up for a few courses at EFSC, which was then Brevard Community College. Even that did not go well because Spenser felt she lacked direction.
“I tried to find my passion, but I still wasn’t focused. I tried to take classes and would either end up withdrawing, or I failed a few.”
Spenser gave herself permission to take a break.
“I did not want anything to do with going back to college because I had kind of failed so much that I was like ‘I’m over it.’ I did not want to keep failing, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet.”
She got her Certified Nursing Assistant license through the American Red Cross. Then, she started working as a home health aide helping people with disabilities. That two-year job provided her first taste of the healthcare field. It made her remember what she’d written in a childhood journal.
“I was in first grade, and it said ‘what do you want to do and where do you want to be when you grew up?’ I had said I wanted to be a nurse with 12 husky dogs and live in New York City and work in the ER.”
It would take one more detour before she’d realize that dream of becoming a nurse.
She switched to working in restaurants, plus bartending. The service industry helped her gain the confidence to overcome her shyness and develop new communication skills.
Then, at age 27, something clicked, and Spenser wanted a major lifestyle change.
“It was almost like my own little intervention, and I realized you are intelligent, you have this big heart, what do you want to do with this?”
She headed back to Eastern Florida State College, determined to overcome her spotty academic record. That meant she also had to pay out-of-pocket while she worked her way back to qualifying for financial aid.
“I was terrified because at that point, I had not been to school in 10 years. Every morning I was like, everyone’s going to be younger than me,” said Spenser. “Comparison is the thief of joy. Maybe I didn’t follow the same timeline as some of my peers, but that didn’t matter. It was my time, and I was focused.”
Spenser decided to get her A.A. degree, working with EFSC’s financial aid specialists to eventually restore her aid thanks to a climbing GPA and timely course completions. She also applied for EFSC’s Nursing RN associate degree, which began in Fall of 2018.
Nursing students may work as nursing aides. Spenser began working at Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center. Later, she moved to Cape Canaveral Hospital and worked part-time while also doing her EFSC clinical rotations.
“Getting a nurse tech position within the first six months or year while you’re in school is such a good thing to do. Because you’ve learned so much and just being in the hospital atmosphere gets you more comfortable and more acclimated.”
Even the COVID-19 pandemic could not prevent Spenser from graduating with her Nursing A.S. degree in May of 2020. As testing centers reopened over the summer, she took and passed the required licensing exam, got her Florida license, and moved to a full-time RN residency position in Cape Canaveral Hospital’s cardiac progressive care unit.
And Spenser has gone from overcoming those early college failures to becoming a confident student, already starting EFSC’s online RN to BSN bachelor-level nursing program with the goal of going on to become a nurse practitioner.
“I went to Flagler College, and I had been such a good student, and I screwed up. But that’s the whole thing about my experience — don’t live in those regrets.”
“It’s okay if you wait to go to school for a couple of years, or if you’re 30, 40, or 50. It doesn’t matter. I had a bit of shame and being scared to go back, but I’m so happy that I pushed through and decided to find a better atmosphere for me, which was staying local, going to a smaller college, and being able to do nursing in my own community, which is awesome.”
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