It’s been exactly one month since Ivy Tech Fort Wayne’s 2023 commencement, and Holly Klingaman is one of the hundreds of grads excited to set out on her new journey. Klingaman comes from a fruitful career that spans more than 20 years as a massage therapist and esthetician, but the COVID-19 pandemic shifted her career goals, and now she’s preparing for her first job as a nurse.

Klingaman was inspired by her sisters who were working as nurses during the shutdown. With an interest that kept growing stronger, she decided to try out a tech job at Parkview. The line of work turned out to be something she enjoyed, and that ultimately led her to Ivy Tech Community College’s Nursing program.

“I had a friend who just graduated the Nursing program, and she had so many good things to say about it,” says Klingaman. “Being a nontraditional student, I wanted to get this degree and get going as quick as I could.”

When she first began at Ivy Tech, she was told the nursing program would be competitive and probably take a lot up a lot of her free time. Klingaman was up for the challenge. She worked hard to make straight A’s and get into the program, which was no easy feat.

“At first it was so overwhelming that I didn’t think I could do it. I almost quit. But I told myself to take it one day at a time, and by the second semester I finally felt comfortable.”

Clinicals were something that Klingaman had to get adjusted to. She says Ivy Tech starts you out on an easier track, working in rehab and nursing homes, then they progressively get more intense. While she enjoyed all the clinicals, working as an Obstetrics (OB) nurse was one that she wished she could’ve explored longer.

Now, as Klingaman leaves Ivy Tech, she’s beyond excited about never having to write another paper but also sad to leave her new friends and the instructors who she says were amazing. To anyone looking to go into the nursing track, she offers this advice:

“Be prepared. It’s a lot of hard work, but you can do it. Looking back, when I first started, I thought ‘oh my gosh I have two and a half years’ but looking back now I think ‘that wasn’t that bad’.”

Since graduation, she’s been preparing to take her nursing state boards—a task she’s feeling confident about. Once she does, she’ll choose a practice (she’s becoming more and more interested in ER) and get her new career started.