“Even as a little girl, I knew I wanted to be a teacher,” says Dr. Angela Rapids, Assistant Professor of Nursing at Germanna. “But life has a way of changing your plans.”
When a teenaged Dr. Rapids graduated high school in Augusta, Georgia, she knew the next step on her journey would be attending college.
“I applied for college, like everyone else my age was doing,” she recalls. “I was hoping to pursue a degree in computer science. It was the thing to do back then.”
Dr. Rapids’ stepfather helped her select a college in Atlanta, and she enrolled in classes. But soon after her college journey began, the expenses started to take a toll.
“It was very expensive to go to college, and it was even harder to secure financial aid. I couldn’t earn enough money to pay tuition.” As a result, Dr. Rapids had to put her college dreams on hold.
When she was ready to go back to school, her plans were once again derailed, as she met her husband, got married, and had her first baby. When her daughter was five years old, Dr. Rapids decided to give school another shot, taking one class at a time to ease back into things.
“But again, life got in the way,” she says. “I had more children, and there was no time to finish school. At that point, I kind of gave up on the idea of continuing my education. I said to myself, ‘Once I get my kids through school, I’ll have the opportunity to do something for myself.’”
And that’s just what she did.
At 49, it was Dr. Rapids’ turn to go back to school. And this time, she was determined to finish.
She began her journey as a full-time nursing student through Germanna’s nursing program. And she remembers exactly how she felt on her first day during orientation.
“We were sitting in room 114 at the Locust Grove Campus with all of these nurse educators talking to us and telling us what to expect in the program. Have you ever been in a room full of women where you can feel the energy coming off of them? It was electric. It was the most powerful feeling I’d had in a long time. And it was then that I realized—teaching is what I want to do.”
Dr. Rapids graduated from Germanna with her associate degree in nursing, and eagerly jumped into her bachelor’s degree program at Old Dominion University, graduating from the university in just nine months.
“I then went straight into my master’s program, where I received my degree in adult gerontology clinical nursing and enrolled in my doctoral program shortly after completing that,” she says. “I wanted to pursue that specific master’s degree because clinical nurse specialists work in three spheres of patient care: we can work as providers, we can educate in hospitals and schools, we can conduct research, and we specialize in organization and systems management. So, it’s a big job. And I knew I could handle it.”
And now, almost 10 years after starting her own educational journey at Germanna, Dr. Rapids is educating Germanna’s nursing students as an assistant professor.
“I started out as an adjunct professor,” she says. “But during the pandemic, Dr. Patti Lisk called me and asked if I wanted a full-time teaching position, and I jumped at the opportunity.”
Dr. Rapids serves as the faculty lead for clinical and lab at Germanna, and she teaches first semester level one nursing courses.
She leads her classroom with empathy and understanding, as she knows firsthand just how challenging Germanna’s nursing program is.
“Nursing school is hard. And it wasn’t too long ago that I was in my students’ shoes. So, I always try to be a supportive instructor.”
Her passion for teaching runs deep, as she’s seen the true impact that starting a career in nursing has had on many of her students.
To prepare her students for working in the nursing field after graduation, Dr. Rapids ensures she incorporates hands-on, real-world learning experiences in her classroom, taking students to hospitals and nursing homes for their clinicals and hosting lab simulations. It is her personal mission to adequately train and develop her students and provide opportunities to help them be the best nurses possible.
And as she works to provide those learning opportunities for her students, Dr. Rapids, a lifelong learner, continues to seek out opportunities for herself. Earlier this year, she received an email detailing the Virginia Space Grant Consortium STEM Takes Flight Workshop, a three-day workshop at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility that focuses on the integration of STEM in the NASA workplace. Intended for Virginia Community College System faculty who teach STEM-related fields, Dr. Rapids decided to apply.
A month after applying, Dr. Rapids was notified that she had been selected as one of 17 faculty in the full state of Virginia to go to NASA this May.
“I don’t know what I’m heading into,” she says, “but I’m really excited.”
For Dr. Rapids, Germanna served as a steppingstone for her and her two daughters, and she loves having the ability to make that impact on other budding nurses.
“I meet a lot of great students who sometimes just need someone to give them a bit of encouragement. But when I see all the past Germanna nursing students at hospitals in the area, it makes it all worth it for me.”