News Article

Following your heart


6/21/2007 10:42:44 AM


Family is what is most important to Sheri-Lynn Noble of Deer Lake. And this was no more evident than when the mother of three put her career pursuits on hold to raise her children.

At the age of 30, Sheri-Lynn enrolled in the Adult Basic Education program offered at College of the North Atlantic’s (CNA) Learning Centre in Deer Lake. Following that, she completed the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) program there.

While she originally set out to follow a different path, her experience in ABE helped her focus her sights on her true desire.

“My husband has his own business – he provides sub-contractors to Corner Brook Pulp and Paper. I thought I’d go into forestry and we could work together,” she says.

“But that wasn’t where my heart was. All of my life I had wanted to do nursing, but I had my children at a very young age and thought I wasn’t capable of raising a family and going back to school at the same time.”

Sheri-Lynn graduated from high school in 1991 and enrolled in ABE in 2003 to get back into “learning mode” before enrolling in a full-time program.

“I went back because it had been so long since I was in school. I did my science, biology and academic math, theme literature… I did the whole academic program over again.”

She completed 41 credits – the equivalent of three years of high school – in just one year.

“I literally lived with my head in a book.”

She finished ABE with four employability skills courses, 16 science courses, 15 math courses and six communications courses.

“It most definitely changed my life. Once I found out the prerequisite for forestry was the same as for nursing I figured that if I’m going to apply myself to do forestry, then I could really apply myself and do nursing which is what I really wanted to do.”

She says the two-year LPN program was intense, but her experience in ABE has prepared her well.

“ABE did prepare me because I always had a heavy course load. When I got to LPN, which was really intense, I was already in the mode with steady studying.”

And she feels the skills she learned in ABE also helped her with the LPN program.

“I thoroughly enjoy what I do now. It just brings a greater self-satisfaction and increases my self-worth. I don’t think I’d be as satisfied if I was in the forestry sector,” says Sherri-Lynn. “It didn’t fit my personality because I’m a very sociable person, I’m compassionate and this is really where I’m supposed to be.

“I’m a strong, strong believer in education and I would most definitely encourage other people to take the ABE program.”

Sherri-Lynn has been employed at a clinic in Deer Lake since completing the LPN program through CNA. She walked into a full-time job two days after graduating from the LPN program in January of this year.

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Tanya Alexander
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(709) 643-7928

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Glenda McCarthy
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(709) 643-6408