From a Special Education Diploma to a Doctor of Nursing Practice
When Nieva learned that her diploma track wouldn't let her go to college, she switched. Two decades later, she's Dr. Nieva Goines, Doctor of Nursing Practice, married to a fellow Bridges alumnus.
“Rejection can be protection.”
Nieva Goines graduated from South Atlanta High School in 2005, but the path she took to that diploma is the start of the story.
Diagnosed with a learning disability, Nieva was on a Special Education Diploma track. In her junior year, she learned that diploma wouldn't let her attend college. She wanted college. So she switched.
Switching meant earning a Regular Education Diploma, despite not having taken regular education courses since sixth grade. The transition was demanding academically and emotionally. She knew she'd face skepticism. She also knew she needed advocates, and she found them in teachers who went above and beyond. She graduated with honors.
Senior year, she enrolled in Bridges and was placed as a file clerk at Capitol City Bank, her first paycheck, and the foundation for what came next.
What came next was a 17-year academic arc. An Associate Degree in Nursing from Atlanta Metropolitan College in two years, while she kept her bank job. A rejection from the Georgia Southwestern nursing program, which she refuses to call a setback. ("Rejection can be protection," she'd say.) A Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Kennesaw State. A Master of Science in Nursing from Augusta University in 2014. A pause to marry her high school sweetheart, another Bridges alumnus. And, in 2022, a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Augusta.
Today, Dr. Nieva Goines works in healthcare. Bridges provided her first employment opportunity, and she's said it helped launch her professional career.
Stories like this happen because of partnership.
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