Steven

“…Thanks to the Honors Program, I haven’t paid a dime for my education.”

Steven on the Honors Program

College can be pretty intimidating, particularly for a non-traditional student such as myself who hadn’t seen a classroom much less studied in 20 years. I had no idea what to expect when I started my pursuit of becoming a nurse, but I definitely knew I just wanted to quietly get through school with as little notice as possible. Boy, did I ever get the exact opposite of that!

While I participated in many aspects of student life at Highline, the Honors Program was certainly the most beneficial in many ways. I’ll never forget when I first took Honors 100 in the spring of 2006-07 and Dr. Clinton said something that would change my life forever. She told us that we didn’t have to settle for being ‘good’, that we could be ‘great‘! I took that to heart and ran with it. From that point on, thanks to the Honors Program, I haven’t paid a dime for my education.

I took my success at Highline on to the University of Washington, School of Nursing where I would become the president of my cohort and graduate with both undergraduate (Highline is the only honors program whose credits transfer to the UW honors program) and nursing honors to become a Registered Nurse. I have since gone on to the Ph.D. program of Nursing Science as a GAANN Fellow (full ride from the department of education) where I am doing research on the disclosure patterns of older adults who are infected with HIV and preparing myself for a career as a professor of nursing. I look forward to one day returning to teach at my alma mater—Highline Community College!