Academic and Career Preparation empowers nursing grad with renewed confidence
June 18, 2025
As hundreds of Georgian students cross the stage to receive their credentials this week at convocation, it’s a chance to celebrate achievements and reflect on years of hard work and dedication. For Nancy Dewar, a Practical Nursing graduate (class of 2025) and a familiar face to all at the Owen Sound Campus, it represents the beginning of a new chapter.
Nancy’s journey to Georgian wasn’t direct from high school – she’d attended a trade school, ran her own cleaning company and even raced motorcycles. She had dreams of becoming a nurse but struggled with math and English, ultimately deciding college wasn’t for her.
After two knee surgeries and battling several health challenges, Nancy needed to find a new career pathway and her passion for nursing became stronger than ever. Facing her fears, Nancy contacted Georgian’s Academic and Career Preparation team in Owen Sound and earned her Academic and Career Entrance (ACE) certificate, giving her the confidence to apply for the Practical Nursing program. Nancy’s experience with ACP gave her an entirely new outlook on school, becoming a keen student and eager to learn, but her success didn’t come easily.
A make-or-break moment
Throughout her studies, Nancy was met with barriers to thriving professionally in her clinical placement and had at one point decided to quit the program.
On a visit to campus, Julie Gruetzman, ACP Academic Liaison and instructor, pulled Nancy into the ACP office to show her the fall 2023 issue of College Matters, a magazine showcasing student success stories across all Ontario college adult upgrading programs. Nancy was on the cover, arm around a model skeleton she’d become familiar with in her time in the Health, Wellness and Sciences department. It was a picture Julie had taken during an impromptu photoshoot on a previous visit.
“When I saw the title of the article, ‘Facing her fears,’ I felt my stomach tie in knots,” Nancy remembers. “What Julie didn’t know while taking that photo, was that I was walking down that hallway to leave the college and never come back.”
Sitting in her car in the campus parking lot afterward, doubts and a heavy decision weighing on her, Nancy received a message from Danielle Barlow, Student Life Coordinator for Georgian College in Owen Sound, asking her to make a special appearance at an event as Growler.
Few on campus knew, but for most of her time at Georgian, Nancy donned the shaggy suit and mask to perform as the college’s own grizzly bear mascot. It was a part she played with pride.
“I knew things had gotten real when I didn’t want anything to do with Growler,” she says.
Despite her internal conflict, Nancy was determined to move on. She’d already started looking for Personal Support Worker jobs, since she’d completed enough of her program to qualify for PSW work. But, after a chat with Student Success Advisor, Megan Braithwaite, Nancy decided to stay in her Professional Nursing course.
“I stayed and got an extension on an essay about conflict resolution,” Nancy says. “The last thing I wanted to do was write about conflict, when I was personally conflicted on so many levels. I wrote the essay and got an amazing mark on it that raised my GPA.”
She decided to stick it out in the program, repeating her third semester and finishing her praxis in 2024.
“I flourished like you wouldn’t believe.”
Signs for success appear
December 2024 was the 20th anniversary of Nancy’s mother’s passing. Every year, on the day, Nancy looks for signs that her mom is still looking out for her.
“That year, there was nothing,” Nancy recalls. “But the next morning, I realized I hadn’t checked my student emails. I opened my inbox to find an email, dated the day before, from the CNO (College of Nurses of Ontario) telling me I could register for my certification exam.”
Nancy wrote it at the end of the year and found out in February 2025 that she’d passed. Now, she has her Practical Nursing diploma in hand, ready to write the next chapter of her story. She’s faced a myriad of challenges on her journey — more than should be expected of someone — and made it through to see the start of a new one.
