Father, daughter graduate nursing school together
BREINIGSVILLE, PA -- Jamie Cernobyl spent 33 years working as a welder, but during a dinner conversation with his daughter, they decided to enroll in nursing school together.
"When I really realized what I wanted to do, it was too late at the time. I had three daughters at the time," Jamie says.
He put off his dream to make sure his daughters got to chase theirs. Erica, his youngest daughter, had just graduated with a degree in sociology, but realized her true calling was nursing.
"What I told Erica was to do what she wants now. Now was the perfect time for her to reach out and do her dreams, what she wanted to do," Jamie said.
Erica enrolled in Northampton Community College's esteemed nursing program, but she wasn't the only one. It turns out dad's longtime dream was also to be a nurse. He took his own advice and the father-daughter duo entered the program together.
WFMZ reports that the school couldn't remember that ever happening there before or remember hearing about it anywhere else either.
Jamie says he couldn't have done it without his girls, including his wife. Erica says her dad is the role model in every aspect of her life including what she looked for in a guy and found in her fiancé.
"Caring, loving, puts you first, just very supportive, and that's what he is," she says.
On Thursday, father and daughter realized their dream together during Northampton Community College's pinning ceremony.
"I had somebody ask me one time, 'do you regret not going back then?' and I said 'no, because I had a chance to do both.' I got the chance to be around, which was important to me and now I get to go back and do what I wanted to do now too," Jamie says.
