WGU ALUMNI
Hoo's Who at WGU
Meet inspiring Night Owl graduates and discover their stories.
Meet Jacqueline Chapman
Bachelor of Science, Nursing | 2026
New York
I Don’t Change. I Grow.
At 71, after nearly five decades in nursing, Jacqueline Chapman returned to school not to start over, but to keep growing. With her family behind her and a career still rooted in caring for others, she earned her WGU degree—and is already looking toward what comes next.
Jacqueline Chapman had already built the kind of career many people would consider complete.
A registered nurse since 1979, Jacqueline spent decades caring for patients in New York hospitals before finding a role at the Birthing Center of New York that allowed her to focus more deeply on the kind of care she valued most: educating patients, listening to them, and helping families navigate pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and life with a newborn.
Along the way, she became a childbirth specialist, lactation consultant specialist, and American Heart Association instructor. She was also recognized as a Best of Brooklyn educator four years in a row.
So why return to school at 71?
Part of the answer was professional. Medicine was continuing to change, and Jacqueline wanted to make sure the information she shared with patients and the community changed with it. But the final push came from someone much closer to home: her daughter, Chennel.
One day, Chennel told her mother to go upstairs, sit down, and open her computer. “At this point, I’m trying to figure out who is the mother and who is the child,” Jacqueline joked. Then Chennel made her intentions clear.
“You’re going back to school today with WGU,” Jacqueline remembers her saying. “I’m not going home until you do this.”
So, Jacqueline enrolled. Jacqueline would later call enrolling one of the best decisions of her life. At 71, she wasn’t starting over—she was giving herself another opportunity to grow.
A Family Project
Returning to school meant entering a very different kind of classroom than Jacqueline remembered. “I believe in my heart that computers don’t like me,” she said.
Her children quickly became what Jacqueline affectionately calls her personal IT team, helping her learn how to navigate online systems and troubleshoot problems. WGU’s own IT and Writing Center teams became part of that support network, too.
Her employer gave her flexibility to work from home when needed. Her family worked around study time. One son, a certified nursing assistant who works in an emergency room, even came to Jacqueline’s home after long shifts to serve as her patient while she completed assessments. “This has been like a family project,” Jacqueline said.
At WGU, she also found support from her Program Mentor, Amanda Stevens, who Jacqueline says consistently helped remove obstacles so she could focus on school. “She was somebody that I could count on, that I knew was going to be there,” she said.
An instructor offered another kind of encouragement. His emails frequently included three simple words: “I believe in you.” “It may sound like nothing,” Jacqueline said, “but that statement is powerful.”
Proving It to Herself
Not every part of the journey came easily. Math had challenged Jacqueline throughout her life. When a difficult testing experience left her discouraged, she reached out to WGU for help, regrouped, and tried again.
Then she passed. “I passed, I passed, I passed,” she recalled. That moment became about much more than one assessment. “I can do anything. I can accomplish anything,” she remembers thinking. “There’s nothing that’s going to stand in your way.”
Jacqueline completed her coursework in July 2026, months earlier than she originally expected. But when asked how the experience changed her, Jacqueline offered a distinction that says a lot about the way she approaches life. “I don’t change. I grow.”
Her education has already strengthened the confidence she brings to conversations with patients and given her updated knowledge she can incorporate into her teaching and care.
And her family has been watching. Jacqueline says her journey has reinforced for her children that education does not have an expiration date. Some family members are pursuing or considering additional education of their own, continuing a ripple effect that began when Chennel sat her mother in front of that computer.
Just the Beginning
For commencement, Jacqueline chose WGU’s virtual ceremony so family, friends, colleagues, and members of her community could share in the milestone with her. But she does not view earning her bachelor’s degree as a finish line. She is already talking about a master’s degree—and eventually a doctorate.
“This is only the beginning for me,” she said. “I’m doing what I have to do for me.”
For anyone wondering whether age, technology, work, family responsibilities, or simply the passage of time means they have missed their opportunity, Jacqueline has a message:
“It’s never too late to learn. It’s never too late to try. Have faith in yourself.
Believe in yourself, and just do it.”
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