PORT HURON – Juggling school work, a job and sports was nothing new for Courtney Flory when she arrived on the St. Clair County Community College campus in 2015.
Flory, 22, grew up excelling in the classroom and on the playing field at Tawas Area High School in Tawas City, Mich., where she shined in basketball, volleyball and cross country prior to attending Alpena Community College.
But the combination of SC4’s nursing program and an opportunity to play softball led her to southeast Michigan.
“SC4’s nursing program was ranked in the Top 10 in the state,” Flory said. “Plus, I was going to join a pretty great softball team. I was excited to head to Port Huron.”
SC4’s nursing program coursework proved a bit challenging at times for Flory, who played softball for two years for Coach Ron Matthews and also worked in the athletic department.
“With the nursing program, you get a lot of information to study in a short time frame and have to have at least an 80 percent or higher in all your classes,” Flory said. “Fortunately, the instructors I had were very supportive. They taught me how and what to study. I learned how to prepare for the tests and realized what was important to focus on.”
Flory handled the challenge of academics and sports well. She graduated this past spring from the nursing program and began working at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit as a RN in June.
“I love my job,” Flory said. “I’m working three 12-hour night shifts and will have to pull some midnights for a while until something opens up with the day shifts. But it definitely was all worth it.
“I really enjoyed Port Huron and my experience at the college. Without a doubt, they prepared me for the job I’m doing right now. I met some great people.”
Joining Flory in Troy, Mich., later this summer will be her younger sister Isabelle, a 2016 Tawas graduate, who played basketball and softball for the Skippers the past two years. Isabelle will be attending Oakland University in the fall.
