Sometimes being the \u201clow man\u201d on the totem pole is the best place to be. Ask Tyrone\u2019s Sheila Fink.
\nIn 2001, Sheila was happily working at the electronics maker and assembler Murata Electronics in State College. She just transferred from one department to another. She was making pretty good money.
\n\u201cI thought I was going to be there for quite some time,\u201d she said, \u201cbut that\u2019s when they decided to downsize.\u201d
\nAnd downsizing, of course, meant layoffs for those situated at the bottom of the ranks. And because of Sheila\u2019s transfer, that\u2019s exactly where her position was. So she lost her job.
\n\u201cI was worried,\u201d she said. \u201cBut losing that job was, perhaps, one of the best things that could have ever happened to me.\u201d
\nIt was a childhood dream coming true. Since she was young, she always wanted to become a nurse. Unfortunately, Sheila\u2019s first daughter was born just days after her high school graduation. With the increased responsibility of childcare, furthering her education was not an option.
\n\u201cInstead of becoming a nurse, I became a mother,\u201d she said.
\nBut losing her job at Murata brought that option back to the forefront.
\nShe contacted the unemployment office to get help moving in the right direction. She was finally pursuing her dream.
\nIn August 2001, Sheila enrolled in the nursing program at the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center and graduated with 35 others. Finally, her dream had become a reality.
\nThe schooling took a full year to complete. According to Sheila, she put eight hours each day into classroom work and additional time when she got home working on her studies at the kitchen table.
\n\u201cThe first day I came home and just cried,\u201d she said. \u201cThe program was hard and I questioned myself as to whether I could do it.
\n\u201cIn fact, my husband made me go back the next day,\u201d she joked.
\nSoon, the days turned to weeks, then weeks to months. Finally, on Aug. 20, Fink donned the cap and gown and graduated as a nurse.
\n\u201cIt was the most remarkable feeling in the word,\u201d she said.
\nEven more remarkably, Sheila put her newly honed talents to work right away. Just one day after graduation, she was hired in the nursery department at Tyrone Hospital.
\n\u201cThat was yet another feather for my cap,\u201d said Sheila. \u201cIt\u2019s just incredible to be able to come back and work in the same town that I grew up in. It also allowed me to work with the people I wanted to work most with, and those are the babies.\u201d
\nAccording to Sheila, as soon as a baby is delivered, the doctor hands the child to her for first care.
\n\u201cThat is the absolute most incredible feeling you can ever have in your life,\u201d she said. \u201cYou get to see someone taking their first breath in their new world. There\u2019s no other feeling like that.\u201d
\nSheila said since her employment began in August, she has seen a dozen babies delivered at the hospital.
\nSheila gives much of the credit for her success to her husband Don.
\n\u201cHe has been so totally positive with my decision from the beginning,\u201d said Sheila. \u201cIn fact, my whole family was supportive, but Don really helped me make it through. He not only played the role of father, but he also had to play a lot of mommy too.\u201d
\nShe also credits her children\u2019s caregiver Jennifer. Balancing a full-time educational responsibility with caring for three children (Brittany, 11; Dakota, 4; and Kohlton, 20 months) is definitely a task.
\n\u201cJennifer has been wonderful and I know for a fact that I couldn\u2019t have done this without her.\u201d
\nOthers who helped push Sheila along includedher grandmother Edna Holland; sister Rhonda Holland; brother Bob Rudasill; mother-in-law Betty Patton; and her father-in-law Don Patton, who passed away on Dec. 15.
\n\u201cEverybody from my family to my teachers to my fellow students were just so positive,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m thankful to have people like that surrounding me.\u201d
\nDespite her accomplishment, Sheila said not everyone should drop what their doing to become a nurse.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s one of things that\u2019s just not for everybody,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have that nurturing instinct, stay away. But if you truly care for others and want to do your part in making someone\u2019s life better, then it\u2019s for you.
\n\u201cNursing is more than just treating illness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes being the \u201clow man\u201d on the totem pole is the best place to be. Ask Tyrone\u2019s Sheila Fink. In 2001, Sheila was happily working at the electronics maker and assembler Murata Electronics in State College. She just transferred from one department to another. She was making pretty good money. \u201cI thought I was going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}