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For 29-year-old Susan Henry, a married mother of four, life “took a 180” two-and-a-half years ago.
Since 2003, Susan has earned a GED, become a first generation college student, maintained a 3.8 GPA, earned three academic scholarships, been accepted into the Registered Nursing program, and studied abroad in Paris.
She credits both Dalton State and her husband of 13 years, Stephen, who is also enrolled in the College’s RN program, for making her dream of studying in Paris come true.
“In our speech class last spring, the professor asked who wanted to go to Paris. I wanted to go, but never thought it was possible. But Stephen said to me, ‘Don’t worry about a thing; I’ll take care of it.’
And away I went.”
Stephen worked overtime shifts to provide spending money for the trip, and Susan earned a DSC Foundation Study Abroad Scholarship to help defray the program costs.
“When I got on the plane, my knees felt like spaghetti,” said the first-time flyer, who ended up traveling each of the five weekends to a new locale: London, Amsterdam, Rome, and Nice, France.
“The whole experience was surreal. I couldn’t believe that I was actually there. It was just perfect,” she says, noting that “after this trip, my eyes opened up to a whole new world.”
Susan particularly enjoyed her French and Music Appreciation classes in Paris, and she loved the field trips and picnics, with French baguettes and cheese, that instructor Nick Carty took them on.
“For me it was five weeks of awe,” says Susan. “It was one country after another, and we were going non-stop.”
Her husband Stephen, who since 2003 has also earned a GED, become a first generation college student and entered the RN program, shares his wife’s dreams of further travel.
“We hope that when our children are grown, we can become traveling nurses and work in other countries,” says Stephen. “That way we can help other people while seeing the world.”
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