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“One said, ’If you are worried about a paper you are writing, submit it early. I will review it before you make your final submission,’” Ewell recalled. “It’s great to have a teacher who will take so much time to make sure you are comfortable with what you are submitting.”

Ewell grew up in New York City and her mother was a nurse, but there was a time when Elwell didn’t want any part of what is now her chosen profession.

“I had this fear of needles,” she said. “My father was diabetic and my mother gave him shots of insulin. I would ask her, ‘How could you stick someone with a needle?’ It was so gross.”

So, she started her career path in accounting, but that didn’t last long. She then married and had two daughters. She wanted to spend as much time as possible with them—and that is what made her reassess her opinion about nursing, which she decided might offer the flexibility she sought while raising her children. By 2003, she had finished a licensed practical nurse (LPN) program and started on an associate degree to become a registered nurse (RN).

But, in 2007, she developed a cervical spinal condition that was so painful at times that she couldn’t carry books. Each time she had an attack, she dropped her college courses for a spell.

Slowly, slowly—in fits and starts—she plugged away at the RN program, completing it in 2014. By that time, her family had lived for four years in Salisbury, Maryland, where her husband of 32 years works as the housekeeping supervisor at Salisbury University. 

In 2015 she turned her academic focus to UMGC, even though the cervical spinal condition still made studying difficult. At one point, the pain was so intense she had to go to an emergency room where she got an injection of the anti-inflammatory drug Toradol.  

“When I got home, I just withdrew from school again,” she said. “I just didn’t think I would be able to go back.” But she found enough encouragement at UMGC to return. That’s also when she started a count down. Each course completed was one down.

“I liked UMGC because of the eight-week courses that were so well organized,” she said. “When they gave you the course content, it was easy to follow. The textbooks were free, and the 24-hour library service was great.”

Elwell noted she had been in-and-out of school for so long that her research skills were rusty. “The librarian walked me through, step-by-step, on what I should do. And I didn’t have to leave home to do it. I was shocked that they even had something like that,” she said.

The success coaches would call to check up on how she was doing. If she had a problem, she said, the coach would ask her for a time to call her back and come up with the solution by then.

“One time I was discouraged because I had gotten COVID and couldn’t get in touch with my professor,” she said. “[The success coach] arranged for the professor to reach out and encouraged me when I felt so low.”

When the health of Elwell’s mother began to decline and she required hospice care, Elwell and her husband opened their home. Elwell said that finishing her degree was an homage to her mother, who died in 2021 at the age of 92. Her mother would have been so proud, Elwell said.

Elwell’s cervical condition has subsided, and the painful attacks are fewer and milder. Elwell is ready for the next step. With all her experience as an RN, what does the new UMGC grad hope to accomplish with a bachelor’s degree?  

“A nurse with a bachelor’s degree has a lot more opportunities,” she explained. “I may want to go into case management. So many jobs won’t consider you if you don’t have the degree, even if you have the experience.”

She liked UMGC so much that she encouraged one of her daughters to attend. Her daughter received a Master of Science in Health Care Administration in 2019. Now, three years later, Ewell is graduating.

At first, Ewell had planned to skip the graduation ceremony, but her family nixed that idea.