Blog

By Lesley Neff, M.A. | April 19, 2018

Christy Fox-Martini never believed she had what it took to be a nurse, despite her lifelong aspirations to do just that. Instead, she chose to pursue a degree in Christian Ministries from Anderson University. When she graduated nearly 10 years ago, she resigned herself to working in jobs that weren’t challenging or fulfilling.

Feeling unsatisfied, her desire for a career in nursing kept resurfacing; however, Christy always felt like she was not good enough to be a nurse, and she had no idea how she would find the time required to change careers. Like so many of us, she’s married and works two jobs, but unlike so many of us, she’s also the starting quarterback for the local Indy Crash women’s full tackle football team—one of over 60 teams nationwide in the ​Women's Football Association. She was concerned about being able to have time for football practice; as starting quarterback, missing practice is not an option since not being in condition can lead to serious injuries.

How can she possibly make her dream happen now? Well, she is making it happen, and here’s how.

She discovered Marian’s accelerated online nursing program which is designed for men and women like Christy—those who want to make a career change into nursing. Her first step was to complete her prerequisites like anatomy, physiology, and microbiology that she needs for nursing school through Marian’s Adult Programs. When asked if she had any concerns about the program, Christy replied, “I did have reservations when I began the online classes. I was nervous about time-management and making myself get the work done since it was on my own time. It has made me even more organized and forces me to make use of my time efficiently.”

The online program allows her to find time on the field, and for this passionate semi-pro athlete, that’s a big deal. Christy says, “I enjoy the online courses because I can do everything around the other events of my day—like my jobs and football." And that’s exactly what she does—she plots out every hour of every day. She utilizes her “life journal,” as she calls it (a planner), to write out what she’s doing literally every hour of every day of the week, term-by-term and session-by-session. She includes family time, workouts, practices, study time, exam schedules, homework submissions, recruitment events—even what she eats and when she eats it.

Christy asks her instructors a lot of questions, and she takes advantage of all practice and homework activities. She learned the hard way that procrastination is ill advised; in her first science course, she waited until the last minute to prepare for an exam and did poorly. Knowing she couldn’t make that mistake again, she now starts studying the day the online course opens and she keeps working on the course until the final exam is carefully submitted.

When not sleeping, studying or tossing the football, Christy works full-time as a Phone and Registration Specialist at Healthnet and she also finds time to work weekends at St. Vincent Hospital as a Patient Care Tech. She’s almost finished with her prerequisite courses, so she’ll soon be applying to the AOBSN (Accelerated Online Bachelor of Nursing) program.

Christy acknowledged that it is certainly not easy, but it’s reasonably doable, and “if you’re passionate about it, you find a way to make it work.” She’s grateful for a program that allows her to transition her dream of a career in nursing into her reality.