Busy Month for Graduate
And Mother of Eight
By Bill Busha

Theresa Dezan of Randolph Center graduated from Vermont Technical College Saturday. (Herald / Nancy Cassidy)

For Theresa Dezan, May would have been a busy month under normal circumstances. The 38-year-old Randolph Center woman is the mother of eight children, three boys and five girls, who range in age from 2 to 19.

Throw in her graduation from the VTC nursing program last weekend, and her oldest daughter’s upcoming wedding this weekend, plus celebrating her 22nd wedding anniversary this month, and the term "hectic" begins to take on a new meaning.

Nursing has always interested her as a career, says Dezan, although it was only within the last five years that she began to think seriously about getting the necessary training.

"I had put off getting started for a few years," she says, "so I could devote my full attention to raising my children. But as the kids started to get older, and as I did, I began to think that I shouldn’t put it off much longer."

She started by taking prerequisite classes through the Community College of Vermont for the first two years, a strategy that she recommends to other people who may wonder how they will ever find the time to pursue a degree.

"It helped at first that I could make progress by taking small steps," she said. "Having to take all the courses at once as a full-time student might have been overwhelming."

Once she was ready to enroll in the final two years of the program, she encountered another obstacle—VTC’s Randolph nursing class was full. In order to keep moving toward her degree, she enrolled through the nursing program’s Bennington site.

"I was able to take the classes through Vermont Interactive Television at the Randolph Center studio," she explained. "But once it came time to do the clinical, hands-on training, I had to travel down there."

That meant leaving Randolph each Wednesday in the company of two fellow students, and returning on Friday. Her first assignment was at a hospital in Albany, and a second was based at the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington.

While away from town for two nights, Dezan and her two colleagues stayed with a fourth student who obligingly opened her Bennington home to them.

Some Advantages

Enrolling in the program after being out of school for a number of years caused some initial anxiety, she said, but being a mother of eight gave her advantages over some of her classmates as well.

"Every mom plays the role of a nurse some of the time," she said, "along with wearing many other hats. I found out in the program that I was more familiar with some of the topics, like obstetrics, as a result of my experience, than were some of my classmates."

When asked what she found to be the hardest part, she replies without hesitating that it was the time she had to spend away from her family, as well as finding the time to study.

"It wasn’t possible to do much of it at home," she said, "so I spent a lot of late, late nights in the VTC library."

How did her children react to Mom’s going back to school?

"They have been very supportive," she said, "although toward the end of the training I think they were starting to tire of not having me around as much as they would like. Her husband, Joe, was supportive too, and perhaps especially understanding: He had gone back to school himself, earning an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering technology from Vermont Tech in 2000.

Has she inspired any of her children to pursue nursing as a career as well? "My 12-year-old daughter, Syerra, seems to be the one who is most interested," she said. "She enjoys helping people."

For the moment, Theresa Dezan can take a deep breath and relax, but not for long. First, there’s her daughter’s wedding in a couple of days, and then she’s eager to begin her nursing career.

Her first choice is to work in Randolph at the Gifford Medical Center, she says, and she is currently awaiting word on a job she has applied for there.

What type of nursing assignment would she be most interested in?

"I’d love to work in Gifford’s Birthing Room," she exclaimed.