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Kaitlyn Hines
Kaitlyn Hines has given herself a second chance.
She dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. Now, at age 25, she is not only about to graduate from Oklahoma State University with a Nursing degree, but she is being inducted into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.
“I started Job Corps at 21 (years old), and I got my GED there, and they pushed me through to OSU,” Hines said.
Hines received her GED through Job Corps to become the second member of her family to complete high school. Next December, she will be the first of her family to ever earn a college degree.
In four years, she has accumulated a 3.7 GPA, and now she is being honored with an induction into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.
Hines went into nursing school with the intention of using her education to help people who need it most.
“I’ve always just had a thing about caring for people,” Hines said. “I’ve always felt very rewarded with it, especially with kids. I love kids.”
Hines also became motivated to go to nursing school when her mother died under hospital care in 2017.
“My mom, she had some issues, and she went to the hospital, and I took her after taking her temperature and it was really high,” Hines said. “They gave her a cold drink and they took her temperature, and they just sent her home. I brought her back a week later, and they were like, ‘Yeah, she has a really severe infection, and if we would have caught this before, she would have survived. So, she actually died from malpractice.”
Hines used the death of her mother to motivate herself to become a nurse and positively affect peoples’ lives from the inside.
“That’s what I’m trying to prevent, too,” Hines said. “I want to prevent that from happening to anybody else.”
Hines will also begin getting hands-on experience in her profession starting in December when she will begin working with Mercy Hospital.
“Right now, I am a nurse tech, so I will get to float to all the different floors and help and learn,” Hines said. “As I progress and get my certificates, I get to go up and be an LPN and RN.”
Hines thanked Donna Betchen for giving her the tools to succeed in life at Job Corps.
“Mrs. Betchan was one of the main people who constantly pushed me,” Hines said. “I remember her coming up there, and she was like, ‘Your scores and stuff are so good, I think you should think about college. You should think about doing something else.’ That’s when I started their college program.”
Hines believes that Betchan and Job Corps have given her a second chance at life, but a chance to use her talents to help people in need, especially if COVID-19 lingers for the foreseeable future.
“Without them (Job Corps), I don’t think I would be here right now,” Hines said. “I think I would still be doing the same stuff I was doing.”