2022 RCC Grad Corina Brown pays tribute to Grandmother

Centuries ago, Jalaluddin Rūmī penned a line that still resonates across the globe today. He is said to have written, “What you seek is seeking you.”

That’s what one soon-to-be graduate at Robeson Community College, Corina Brown, has discovered, that what you’re seeking in life may actually be closer than you may realize. Some might even say, that very thing that you are seeking, is already within you.

For years Corina says she struggled trying to find her purpose.  

“I’ve always wanted to go medical. I actually started off going to veterinary school, but graduate school is pretty expensive. It didn’t pan out. I also had a love for teaching as well,” said Corina.

“That’s why my second-choice degree was actually teaching and I was trying so hard to be a public-school teacher and even when I was subbing, all of my insides were like, this is not it. And I was like, this is gonna be it. I’m going to make it my it, and it didn’t end up being that.”

Corina says she felt like she was trying to force square pegs in round holes. She just couldn’t find the one thing that she loved and wanted to spend her life doing.  

“The whole time my parents were like, you’d be a great nurse. You’d be a great nurse. And I didn’t really believe it. And then I was like, you know what, let’s try it.”

And that’s when she discovered Robeson Community College.

“I was working at Starbucks the first time that I heard about RCC’s nursing program. There was actually a former nursing student sitting in the Starbucks and I made conversation with her and she said that she loved the program. And then when I asked my coworkers, they were talking about how much they’ve heard about RCC’s nursing program. And they said it was like the best in the state. So it was serendipitous that it was only 10 minutes away from my house.”

“Within the first week, I fell in love with it. After my first clinical, I was like, there’s medicine, there’s teaching, there’s interaction with patients, this is definitely my calling and what I need to be doing with my life.”

Nursing was also the career choice of her grandmother, Glenda James.

Glenda graduated from nursing school in 1963 while living in Missouri and went on to have a successful career that spanned more than 4 decades long, serving in VA hospitals providing long-term care to older veterans. Her inspiration for serving veterans came from her husband’s service in the military, he had served in Vietnam.

Being a military wife, she understood the sacrifices of those brave men and women that were being made then and now, and that was her way of giving back to those who had given so much.  

“She always uses the quote, “I loved my old men.” She liked working with the older population of veterans,” said Corina.

All of Glenda’s children would choose a life of service in the military, and her granddaughter Corina would spend most of her life growing up on a military base in Germany, before coming to the United States for college. 

Corina says she never dreamed she would be following in the footsteps of her grandma.

“It’s really surreal. I never thought I would be going this path. It just kind of found me. I switched my major three times and this is the degree I fell in love with and she was very excited whenever that happened, so it’s pretty amazing.”

Corina says that although her grandmother will not be able to attend graduation in-person due to health conditions, she has found a special way to pay tribute to her. She will have her grandmother’s pin placed on her uniform, the one her grandmother received almost 60 years ago after completing nursing school in Missouri.

“I didn’t really get emotional until I took it to the jeweler and they got it cleaned and polished –  That’s when I started getting really emotional, because once the tarnish came off, you saw all of the little details,” said Corina. “So, it’s going be something that I’m going to wear proudly when I walk across the stage and it’s hopefully something that if my kids or grandkids decide to go into nursing, it’s something that they can have of their grandmother, great grandmother. It’s going to be something that we’re going to be keeping in the family.”

And just like her grandmother, Corina says that one day she would like to eventually work at the VA caring for veterans.

“I come from a military family. My husband comes from a military family. I would love to give back to the military and provide health services to our military members because that was what my grandma did as well.”

Corina says there are lots of options available though. 

“I’ve actually accepted a position in the ER at UNC Southeastern,” said Corina. “Of course, there is a bit of anxiety and I’m going to be a new graduate, but I feel that I am as prepared as I can be.”

“If I do go the VA option, I would like to try to go back to Germany and work at the big military hospital there in Landstuhl, that is basically the main hospital that all of the service members go to in Germany and that would put me closer to my German family. So that’s an option, but for right now, I do plan on staying in Robeson County.”