Want to Know What a Medical Doctor Thinks about HACC?

Meet Dr. Karen Morris-Priester, HACC alumna and medical doctor. This mother of five kids, at almost age 30, worked a full-time job and earned her associate degree in nursing from HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College – before going on to graduate from Yale University. Hear her story and why she chose HACC as her starting point.

I've always wanted to, uh, pursue medicineor some type of health care field since as far back as I can remember. I didn't start attending HACC until I was almost 30, and at that time I was raising five children and working a full-time job, and I knew I wanted to go to school and, um, HACC was perfect for me because I could, um, work full-time and then come to down the street, uh, to HACC and take classes in the evening. After HACC I started working as an RN for, actually, for the state of Pennsylvania and, um, it was a wonderful career, but it also reminded me that my original goal had been to become a physician and so working alongside physicians so closely just kept reminding me that that's what I originally wanted to do. So I started going back and taking classes now down at York College of Pennsylvania, and I got my bachelor's of nursing there and then, uh, started really contemplating, um, going on to medical school. So I started, uh, taking the classes, the organic chemistry, the physics and still doing well so I started, I applied, uh, to medical school. I got accepted to six. And uh, and uh finally started medical school at Yale as the first grandmother to ever go to Yale School of Medicine. I think my education at HACC was a strong foundation for me to get into, not just a four-year college, ut also in the medical school. Um, the classes I took here, I would stack them up against anywhere. I felt prepared when I went on to the four-year college and continued my nursing degree program. And also, you know, going to away to, you know, an Ivy League institution and competing against people who had all, you know, had come up with some of the biggest schools, but I got my start here and, um, I was able to compete with everyone on the same equal footing. I think the thing that makes HACC unique is its accessibility. I don't think and I honestly believe I could not be a doctor today if HACC had not been here. I would not have been able to work full time, care for my children, and still make them a priority and do schooling at the same time. It was close it was convenient and more importantly, it was affordable. It was something that a single mom of five could still do. If someone were to come to me today and ask me about HACC, I would tell them that was one of the best investments I made in myself and in my career and also in my family, uh, because I was still able to pursue my career, but I never felt like I was neglecting them. And HACC made that possible for me. You absolutely can do this. If I can do it, there's nothing special about me. If you have a dream definitely go for it. It's not going to always be easy, but I am proof that it is definitely possible to do it.