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| Reynolds is a smart place to start and finish. From left, JSRCC alumni Frannie Muldowney, Elizabeth Muldowney, and Leslie Gallagher |
So, have you decided on a major? That can feel like a loaded question for many college-bound graduates. The Virginia Wizard helps high school students narrow down a career path and field of study – but, it’s still a gutsy call to make at 18.
It’s one of the reasons Reynolds has students from four-year schools enrolling in associate degree programs. Faced with the financial realities of post-graduate life, the college’s occupational focus can be a powerful draw, as Leslie Gallagher (then, Muldowney) and her identical twin Elizabeth discovered. “We had both graduated and were waiting tables, sharing an apartment. We just decided it was time to learn something practical, something we could make a living on.” Both English majors, Leslie had graduated from Virginia Tech and Elizabeth from VCU. This time, as Reynolds students, the sisters would head in different directions.
Leslie is now a nurse practitioner specializing in abdominal transplant surgeries. For the medical field, “Reynolds really prepared me for what I needed to move on. I took a lot of science courses and had excellent instructors. Plus, I could keep working. I was waiting tables to pay my tuition and the rate was great.”
Leslie encourages her nursing colleagues to consider Reynolds. “There’s a big push for magnet status at the hospitals. You have RNs who have worked for years, but they need classes like biology and chemistry now. Financially, it’s smart to go to Reynolds; it’s flexible and you can keep working.”
For Elizabeth, Reynolds let her dip her toe in a subject she found intriguing. “I had taken a constitutional law class at VCU and liked it. I was contemplating law school, but that’s a big endeavor.” After completing her Paralegal Studies AAS at Reynolds, Elizabeth plunged deeper. Already holding a bachelor’s degree, “I went straight from J. Sarge to law school. While I was at Reynolds, we had an externship program that was so helpful. I worked at the Attorney General’s office and gained a lot of practical experience. At my law firm now we have three J. Sarge grads who work for us, and one is thinking about law school.”
There’s a third Muldowney who also found her way to Reynolds, years after graduating from James Madison University as a math major: Frannie Muldowney, sister-in-law to Elizabeth and Leslie. Staying at home after a career in finance, Frannie’s decision to study respiratory therapy was grounded in personal experience. “When my youngest daughter was diagnosed with asthma, I just soaked up the information from her doctors. And, I’d always been interested in medicine, so it was the right time.”
Frannie’s pre-requisite classes from JMU transferred easily. “Reynolds had the only Respiratory Therapy AAS program in town, and I was working in my field even before graduating.” Frannie can do and teach; she has worked as an adjunct instructor in the Respiratory Therapy lab at the Downtown Campus.
The sisters agree that, when it comes to college, the first time around may not be the last – which can be a good thing. Explains Frannie, “It’s difficult to ask high school kids what they’re going to major in. At that age, it’s just hard to know. I went back at 40 and loved it, because I knew what I wanted to do.”
