Breaking Barriers
May 27, 2025
“I ALWAYS KNEW I wanted to be a nurse,” says Valencia, who moved to Huron from Puerto Rico with her family when she was 15. “But language made it hard for me.”
Several years after high school, with encouragement from her mother and support from staff at Huron Regional Medical Center, Valencia decided to pursue her goals. With help from scholarships from the HRMC Foundation, she earned her associate’s degree from Southeast Technical College, receiving her licensed practical nurse pin from her mother, who was a nurse in Puerto Rico.
“Nursing school was intimidating at fi rst,” Valencia remembers. “But everybody was so encouraging that they made it easier for me.”
AIMING HIGH WHILE MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Valencia now works at the HRMC Physicians Clinic, where she often speaks Spanish with patients.
“I see how relieved and how comfortable patients are when they learn I speak Spanish,” she says. “They communicate better. People feel more free to express everything when we’re talking in our native language.”
Valencia, who is married with two young children, is now studying to become a registered nurse.
“You can always advance in nursing, and I’m taking it step by step,” she says. “I hope I’m being a role model to my children, so one day they say, ‘I’m not going to give up, because my mom didn’t.’”
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