QCC Alums Pass the Torch to Their Children

QCC alum Jeffrey Jansson knows what the value of a QCC degree means. The 1979 Respiratory Therapy graduate came to QCC by way of Holy Cross.

“I had a bachelor’s degree in French but couldn’t get a job. Half my class couldn’t get jobs,” Mr. Jansson said. “Someone had told me respiratory therapy was a good field and there were plenty of jobs.”

It was the impetus he needed to register for QCC’s Respiratory Therapy program and begin taking classes. He did the clinical portion of his degree at Memorial Hospital on Belmont Street in Worcester and was offered a position there after he graduated. He spent the next 40 years at the hospital as a staff Respiratory Therapist B.A. RRT, before retiring this past May. It was at Memorial Hospital that he would meet his future wife, Robin, who was the secretary in the Emergency Department. The two began dating and in 1989 married. Soon they began having a family. According to Mrs. Jansson, during those early childhood years she felt she needed an outlet to give her a bit of a break. Her outlet took on the form of a course at QCC.

“I initially just wanted to take a course and get out of the house so I took a psychology course at QCC and thought ‘this is fabulous,'” she said. “I liked it a lot and next semester took another class.”

As someone who worked in a medical setting for so many years, nursing had been something that greatly interested her, so she made the decision to work toward her nursing degree. For the next 12 years as her three children were growing, Mrs. Jansson took one class a semester, working on completing her prerequisites for QCC’s nursing program.

“While the children were growing I decided I was going to do this and I completed all my prerequisites then slid into the two-year nursing program." Mrs. Jansson said, adding that while she was an older non-traditional student, she never felt she was the “older one” in her classes.

“I felt a lot of support,” she said.

She said she took pride in being a QCC student and that pride was validated when she did her clinicals at Saint Vincent Hospital and UMass Hospital (University Campus).

“The staff at these hospitals would always say they loved the fact that we were QCC students. They felt like we were prepared and felt confident in us,” she said.

In 2009, Mrs. Jansson graduated from the nursing program at the age of 50. Today Mrs. Jansson works as a Pre-Op/PACU RN at Worcester Surgical Center.

“Everyone at QCC worked with me. I was able to take classes in the evening, morning, it was so flexible. They work with your schedule here,” she said. “I felt totally prepared to enter the nursing field."

It’s All in the Family

Healthcare is truly ingrained in the Jansson family. In May the two youngest in the Jansson family, son Jarrod and daughter Lindsey, graduated from QCC with a respiratory therapy associate degree and a nursing associate degree respectively. Older brother Jeff Jr. graduated from the Radiologic Technology program in 2014 with an associate degree. While Jeff Jr. is currently working as a machinist at Saint Gobain, it was his degree from QCC which helped him “get the job,” according to Mrs. Jansson.

While only just graduating, Jarrod has already obtained a job as a respiratory therapist at the UMass Hospital (University Campus) after passing all his licensing requirements. This was the place where he did his clinicals. A particularly poignant moment for the family was during Jarrod’s pinning ceremony when his father was called to the stage to pin his son.

“Jeffrey was passing the torch to Jarrod,” Mrs. Jansson said. “We are as proud as peacocks.”

Mrs. Jansson said her daughter Lindsey plans to attend Worcester State University this fall to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

“When she got out of high school she knew she was going to do nursing and couldn’t do it anywhere but QCC,” Mrs. Jansson said, adding that the affordability, coupled with an education that enables you to be “workforce ready” is a powerful combination that has worked for the entire family.

At the Jansson home, QCC holds a very special place at the dinner table where the conversation is alive with “healthcare speak.”

Mrs. Jansson said she is often asked where to go to attain an education and she always directs everyone to QCC.

“I have many patients who are moms who say they can’t get an education I tell them they can do this. I tell them ‘take your time, go to QCC and take that one class,’” she said.

“Every journey starts with a first step,” Mr. Jansson added.