Angela Davis, 38
Graduate
Nursing program, Henry Ford Health System
Detroit
The former autoworker never abandoned her hope to work in health care: "The money was good at Chrysler, but I wanted an actual career."
Angela Davis always knew she wanted to work in medicine. But when she was 21, "life happened," she says. She had her first son, who became one of three children.
The native Detroiter left her job at Target to assemble engines for Chrysler. But she kept her dream alive by taking night classes to fulfill prerequisites for nursing school, so when Chrysler laid her off in 2007, she was ready for good fortune to strike.
It presented itself as a two-year nursing program for displaced autoworkers, run by Detroit's Henry Ford Health System and Oakland University in nearby Rochester.
Davis and her husband, a cook in a Detroit suburb, had to make sacrifices while she was a full-time student. They moved to a smaller house in a less-affluent Detroit neighborhood.
But Davis feels she had advantages too, including the skill she learned on the assembly line of accomplishing tasks in as little as 17 seconds.
Davis will take her certification exam in November, but her training won't stop: She plans to pursue her master's degree and become a nurse practitioner.
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