One WVU Tech alumnus proves it’s never too late to do something new, even if that something new is going to nursing school and getting your bachelor’s degree.
Leslie “Les” Williams graduated from the WVU School of Nursing - Beckley Campus with his nursing degree in 2022, twenty years after his first attempt at college.
A native of Shady Spring, Williams attended college for a short time before entering the Air Force after high school as a medic.
“When I got out of the Air Force, the only skill that really transferred was my EMT basic training, and I didn’t want to go work on an ambulance,” he said. “It never occurred to me when I graduated high school to go into nursing. I wanted to go into pharmacy. I didn’t think I would like to work with people. But when I went into the Air Force, I worked in a doctor’s office with the flight surgeon. I was below a registered nurse (RN) in what I could do, but I could start IV’s, assist with minor surgeries, and I checked in with patients. I found out I really enjoyed working with people,” he said.
Williams thought about attending community college in Florida, but once he and wife began their family, school got put on the back burner for a while.
In 2012, they moved back to West Virginia, and with encouragement from his wife, he contemplated getting a licensed practical nurse (LPN) degree, but he didn’t get a seat in the class he’d interviewed for. His oldest daughter was visiting Tech, and he joked that he was going to just go with the students who were interested in nursing. Afterwards, however, after weighing his options, he decided he would apply to Tech, and things began to fall into place.
“I had a 1.0 GPA the first time I went to college,” Williams said. “I did my first semester [at Tech] and had a 4.0, and had a 4.0 my second semester. I applied in the fall for the nursing program, but got waitlisted, but I got a letter that next spring that I had gotten a chair in the program.”
Williams said finding TRIO Student Support Services (TRIO SSS) at Tech gave him the resources he needed to help him through his nursing program, even though he was a nontraditional student, including a scholarship. He worked while he was completing school, and while there were some things he missed out on, he signed up for as many experiences as he could.
“Believe it or not, I had spent twenty years of my life here and had never gone whitewater rafting; the first time I went was with TRIO. We got to visit the bunker at the Greenbrier and Lost World Caverns,” he said.
“The TRIO SSS staff did a lot with helping me with any types of resources, and let me know what was going on around campus, or the classes they had. They would do financial literacy thing or even interview prep. Granted, I'd had interviews before. But even being a non-traditional student, but they would still tell me about it. I even went to some of these things and did some mock interviews and stuff, because, hey - it's never too late to learn a little bit more that you may not know,” he said.
Williams said there were some pros and cons to being a nontraditional student, but the maturity he had going into the college experience his second time around was something that helped him persevere. He said he also made sure his professors knew who he was and sat up front in his classes.
“Every one of my professors at Tech knew my face because I was sitting right up front in class. I made sure everyone knew who I was. They didn’t treat me any differently because I was a non-traditional student. Whenever they saw me, they interacted with me just like they would any other student,” Williams said. “Surprisingly, the maturity I gained…I realized it was a whole lot easier at 44-45 it’s a whole lot easier for me to sit at home and study than when I was 19 years old.”
Williams also said there were a few students in his cohort that were nontraditional students, but sometimes the age gap with other students still made for some funny moments.
“I remember one of the girls in my cohort was talking about her 21st birthday, and I was coming up on my 21st wedding anniversary,” he chuckled. “I had been married as long or longer than some of my classmates had been alive.”
However, Williams said, the life experience and perspective really carried him through and made all the difference.
Williams graduated with his bachelor’s degree in nursing in 2022. Four years later, his daughter, Amanda, would also earn her diploma from Tech in forensic investigation.
“We celebrated both mine and Amanda’s graduation at the same time, because she was graduating high school and I was graduating college,” he said.
However, this period wasn’t always smooth sailing for Williams.
His mother unexpectedly passed away, which led to him having test anxiety and anxiety attacks for the first time. He contracted sickness from black mold and moved into a new home as he was getting ready to start his senior year. He was still raising his three children. He persisted.
After college, life came full circle for Williams as he accepted a job at the Beckley VA Medical Center. He was one of only two students accepted into what was then known as the VALOR program (now known as VA-STEP), a paid internship program requiring him to work 400 hours on the floor and 400 hours in the emergency department. The program led to a yearlong residency, after which he was able to secure a full-time position.
His life experience and time in the Air Force gives him plenty to talk about with the patients he serves.
“I talk with them about a lot of different industrial stuff, since that’s what I used to work in,” he said.
His advice for nontraditional students thinking of going back to school?
“I want people to know it can be done,” he said. “There is always something you can learn.”