Most students with four children would not opt to pursue a degree in a challenging program like nursing. Effe Addae is not most students.

People discouraged Addae, a native of Ghana, West Africa, from applying to the Nursing program at Miami University Regionals because she was working full-time and raising her children, ages 4, 7, 8 and 10. But losing a relative because of a nursing shortage cemented her intentions.

"I vowed to become a nurse to care for the sick," Addae said. "I decided to enroll at Miami University Regionals because of its outstanding academic reputation."

Addae will graduate on May 15 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

She worked 12-hour shifts at AstraZeneca her first two years in the program and currently works full time at Effkays LLC as a supervisor. While juggling work, school, and family life was not easy, she credits several Regionals faculty members with helping her power through.

"I remember bawling my eyes out one day when I was having a conversation with Dr. Eyad Mussallem because I thought I was going to fail a course," Addae said. "He encouraged and believed in me when I felt I couldn’t find the strength to carry on."

She added that she was fortunate to have "amazing professors" such as Mussallem,  Tricia Neu, Rhonda Cooper, Sarah DeLong, Amy Siegler, Brenda Barnes, and Angela Gutowski "who encouraged me, explained difficult concepts, and above all gave me shoulders to cry on when the going got tough."

And Addae isn’t done yet. That nursing shortage that brought her to the discipline continues, and so will her education.

This fall, she will be one of the first students enrolled in Miami’s new online Master’s degree program in Nursing. The program, which features three tracks — Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), Nurse Educator, and Nurse Executive Leadership — can be completed entirely online in two years. Addae will work toward the FNP degree.

"Effe is an excellent student who is always willing to volunteer to help other students and goes above and beyond what is asked of her in the classroom," said Neu, assistant professor of Nursing and director of the FNP track. "We are so excited to have her in our grad program."

"I am an individual who enjoys helping people and enhancing my personal growth," Addae said. "By working in an environment that allows me to learn and advance my career, and as a nurse practitioner, I will be able to do that."

It will also allow Addae to attain something no one else in her family has — attaining a master’s degree.

"Becoming a nurse practitioner will allow me to become the first woman among my siblings to pursue (an advanced degree)," she said. "I’ll break the stereotype that only men can achieve higher academic success in my family."