It’s never too late to level up

Ten years ago, Amanda Fangio started her career at Presbyterian as a medical assistant, working long hours while balancing being a wife and mother. She always dreamed of becoming a nurse but thought it would be too much of an undertaking to tackle school, work and family life. As her kids grew, so did Amanda’s determination to fulfill her lifelong goal of becoming a nurse. Today, Amanda is a graduate of the Presbyterian Nursing Career Pathways program powered by Brookline College, where she earned her Practical Nurse (PN) degree.

“When I first heard about this program, I thought it might not be a feasible option for me. I’m older, my husband and I have four kids and we both work full time,” Amanda said. “But after more research, I found out I could still work and earn my LPN, which was a big selling point.”

Amanda knew it was not going to be an easy feat, but the flexibility of the program and support from her family and peers motivated her to, in her words, “just do it.” She wanted the change, and she was ready for it.

“Because of the flexibility and real-world learning experience of this program, I knew that all I needed to do was commit,” Amanda said.

I addition to achieving a new professional goal, Amanda also wanted to set an example for her kids, showing them that no matter how hard something appears, as long as you work hard at it, anything is possible.

“I’m not going to say it was easy, because there were times where I did feel like giving up, but I constantly reminded myself why I was doing this: my family,” Amanda said. “My daughter would sneak notes into my bag that said ‘You got this mom,’ which motivated me even more.”

With her family’s unwavering support, Amanda completed the program in March 2025. The Presbyterian Healthcare Advanced Learning Lab (HALL) was a crucial to her success. She said being able to immerse herself in real-world clinical simulations helped her refine her skillset and prepared her for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), the primary nursing license test in the U.S.

“Some of the simulations were really hard, but if didn’t have the opportunity to experience them, it would have been much harder to pass the NCLEX,” Amanda said.

Aside from the real-world simulation experience and flexible learning format of the Pathways program, Amanda said she really enjoyed building strong bonds with her fellow classmates. They were able to lean on each other for support as they all went through the experience together.

“I had a close group of classmates. We called ourselves the Scrub Sisters,” Amanda said.

“What is really awesome is that four of us ended up working in the same unit, we’re still super close.”

“All those late nights studying, the games I had to miss for my son’s football team, all the family events that I had to miss because I was studying or in clinicals, it all came down to the moment I became an licensed practical nurse. This was worth everything.”