She had moved from Buffalo, N.Y., to Connecticut because of a romantic relationship. Patty Bapst was tired of jobs leaving her behind.

“And then, it all falls apart,” Bapst said. With two months of classes left, the nursing school abruptly closed. Patty Bapst, 50, drove 22,000 miles from her home in Norwich to Stone Academy in East Hartford for the past two years. She hopes that however she gets her LPN or RN certification in the future, that she’ll be able to work at a correctional facility or psych ward. “But, I know I’m going to become a nurse,” Brooks said. Since the school’s closure, Brooks said she’s been stuck in a “mental fog,” that’s “taken a toll on me mentally, physically and emotionally.” She was in Stone’s remedial program at the time of its shutdown and preparing to take her exit exam again. She said she put over 60,000 miles on her car by traveling from New London to East Hartford. Determined to still make her proud, Brooks began leaving her infant son with her grandfather three times a week and her daughter with her mother while she was in classes. Throughout her time at Stone, Brooks lost her grandmother, who was her sole motivation in becoming a nurse. Yeah, I was attracted because, you know, ‘Fast, fast, fast – 15 to 18 months for your LPN.’ ‘OK, I’m gonna do it.’” “So they post these types of schooling to attract us. “It was a misleading advertisement to attract individuals like me, who may have not had the best upbringing, and who is currently a single parent, and who’s struggling to make ends meet while I work and take care of my kids,” Brooks said. Brooks said she often had to teach herself the material.įor example, during COVID-19, instead of having online classes, teachers would only hop on the Zoom meeting for a few minutes to to assign homework and tell the students what chapters to read, then they were tested the following week, Brooks said.īrooks also felt the institution preyed on young women of color who are trying to break generational curses but instead leaves them trapped with broken self-esteem.

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