Vanessa Landegger stands with her son Dylan Antonioli. The two were classmates at Yale until Landegger graduated on May 20. Photo: Washington Post/Dylan Antonioli
This woman had dreamed of working in the medical field for a long time. In 2000, she was a first-year medical student at Colorado State, but then had to change her major because she realized that balancing that program with raising her 8-month-old son was too much of a challenge.
At the time, she was living far from her extended family, had trouble sleeping, and the medical school had no accommodations for mothers who were both studying and raising young children.
Choose to drop out of school to take care of children
But eventually, the mother was able to return to her dream, and last week she graduated from Yale School of Nursing. Her son, Dylan Antonioli, 24, a freshman at the same school, in the same program, was the one who encouraged her to return to school. He encouraged and inspired her to return to her youthful dream.
More than 20 years ago, while Landegger was considering a career in medicine, she and her husband were also planning to have children. They decided that she would still apply to medical school but would delay her enrollment by a year while they had their first child.
But when she started school, Landegger found herself struggling to balance motherhood with the demands of school. Although her husband did his best to help care for the children while she was at school, the pressure was so great that she felt exhausted and unhappy.
She knew she wanted to quit school, but not until midterms that year. When the results were announced, Landerger learned she had come in third.
She took her resignation letter to the dean of the medical school with her to the midterm exam room. The teachers at the school tried to convince her to stay, but she had made up her mind. That year, she felt she needed to choose her son over the medical program she was pursuing.
“For me, putting yourself aside and really caring about the needs of others is something that is very valuable anyway,” she said.
The young mother then decided to pursue a master's degree in public health and education, which were more theoretically oriented programs that seemed more feasible to her while she was still a mother. She became a teacher in Connecticut, while raising Antonioli and his two younger siblings.
It's never too late
Although Landergger had always dreamed of caring for patients, she had no regrets about her decision to drop out of medical school. However, deep down, she felt something was missing.
The “missing piece” revealed itself in 2018, when Antonioli encouraged his mother to enroll in the emergency medical technician training he had just completed. “It was more doable, so I thought maybe she wanted to get some of that medical vibe back,” Antonioli says.
Landegger initially thought taking the course would help her better handle emergencies at the elementary school where she teaches science. But months after she completed her training in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, making the work of emergency medical technicians and other health care workers more essential.
At the same time, her son (then a student at Georgetown University) was home during the COVID-19 school closures, so the two of them took on emergency medical shifts in New Canaan, Connecticut, supporting each other through stressful workdays during a period of uncertainty and chaos.
The experience was a natural one for Ms. Landegger, like “putting on a glove.” Those who worked with her were impressed with how professional and proficient she was in communicating with patients and how curious and inquisitive she was in her work.
She decided “not to ignore that feeling.” Even though she knew she didn’t want to go back to medical school, she wanted to do something more than be an emergency medical technician.
Becoming a nurse practitioner (NP) seemed to fall somewhere in between. She took required online courses at Georgetown University before applying to nursing school. In 2021, she began her NP training program at Yale School of Nursing.
Interestingly, a year later, her son, Antonioli, followed in his mother's footsteps and, after graduating from Georgetown University, also enrolled in a master's program in nursing at Yale.
Antonioli will graduate with her master’s degree in 2026. And because they are both in the Yale program, they have become “best friends” on campus. Between classes, they chat on campus.
Instill faith in your children
At Mrs. Landegger's graduation last week, Mr. Antonioli had his third chance to attend a ceremony marking his mother's completion of a master's program, only this time he attended as a classmate of hers.
As for Mrs. Landegger, she kept looking at her son, the graduation ceremony bringing back memories. She could not forget her own thoughts of her first year at Yale, when there were times when she felt that reaching the end of her education was too difficult.
And she hopes the ceremony will help her son believe he can find a career path for himself.
Failed regular school, got into Harvard and Yale!Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-phu-nu-truong-yale-truyen-lua-cho-cac-ban-tre-20240601104954009.htm
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