Joanna Halun LPN

Hi my name is Joanna and I live in northern Ohio. I’ve been a nurse, an LPN, for 32 years. I was motivated to go for my RN degree because LPNs are being faded out in Ohio and I was told for employment purposes I had to get my RN. I heard about Rue from other nurses at my facility that I’m working at. There’s about 4 of us that have been involved with Rue Education.  I have referred 3 people to Rue. I have 4 more courses to complete before I go on to get my RN degree. I finished my last course in 10 weeks. It was Life Span 2, it helped that I have a foot injury and I have not been able to work, but greatly I’ve been able to spend more time studying and continuing my education. The great part about this is if I was going to a community college, I would have had to drop out, but because I do my online schooling I’ve been able to continue on and as a matter of fact, excel.

I find it very easy to get on the computer and sign up for my classes and for my exams, there’s no problem at all with that. I am in the tutor-led program, I like having deadlines, I like having somebody I can email and get answers to my questions, it keeps me at a very nice pace. I continue to do my courses as I’m told, I start on Monday and have them finished by Sunday and I always stay within the deadlines. I really feel that the tutor-led classes have helped me to be prepared for my exam; the questions that they give us at the end of each chapter or each week have really helped me to be able to study for the material I needed to pass the test. I really enjoyed with the tutor-led classes that I have a discussion with people and fellow students all the way from Maine to Florida to Arizona and it’s given me a very good insight each week on, not only the subjects we’re studying, but what is going on across the United States in the nursing program.

I chose Rue because I never went to college, I graduated as an LPN from high school and then I went right into having children, I never had the opportunity to go to college so I was very afraid to go to community college. Rue gave me the opportunity to study at home, and if it takes me longer to study something like a couple days to catch onto something, that’s okay! And I wasn’t as afraid to be studying by myself than I would if I went to a community college. It’s given me the opportunity to go to college that I never had. At 50 years of age, I got to go to college!

I have been very happy with the academic support that I have received. I was very nervous with taking microbiology, and the advisors encouraged me and said you’ve gotten this far, you’re going to be able to handle microbiology. I was extremely afraid but I believed her because she had helped me with completing each course, and she was right! I got an A! I started with these courses from the very beginning. I did all my general ed, and all of my nursing, so I was very afraid from even taking English to any of them. But at each time, she’d just say go ahead take another one, take another one, and I did. I’ve done all of them through Rue.

You know it’s surprising, at my age, I still have my parents very proud of me that I’m going to college. I’ll be the first to go to college and finish it in my family and I take a lot of pride in that. My grandson’s proud of me, he’s always telling me and my husband’s been nothing but supportive of me. Every time I pass a test, everybody has to hear about it because everybody prays, and I’m very proud of myself that I did this. I really believe Rue is a good program, the great part is, it can be for a mom that she has small children and she can’t get to community college, it’s great for somebody at my age, I see a lot of my classmates are my age, because we just, maybe don’t feel we belong in the community college, but when I’m with my classmates on the computer and as I do it on my own, I’m a self-motivated person and I think Rue could help a lot of people and in the future I think this is going to even explode even more than where it is now. 

When it comes to my studying, I work night shift, so I work all night, then I come home and I sleep, and then I wake up and do my studying before my husband or my grandchildren come home so it works out nice because I set the time when I’m going to do it, you have to be very motivated and decide to, and disciplined when your time is going to be. I have a set time and I follow those rules just like if I was going to regular community college. I’m a nervous person so when it comes time for my exams I get a little nervous, but as I’ve learned in psychology, it’s important to have a little bit of anxiety because that pushes you and gets that adrenaline going and I’m always prepared for my exam because I took that extra time studying, just because I’m an anxious person. Then when I finish my test, I have always made a rule of no studying any longer that day. That’s my only little treat to myself. One thing I would suggest is that you take your pre-exam at the end of your Rue course, and it helps you to know what to study, I felt that has been very helpful with studying for my exams. I wish everyone good luck with Rue Education and becoming a nurse, becoming an RN. Just know if you’re self-disciplined and somebody that’s really motivated, Rue education is the way to go, good luck!