STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Jacqueline Scholz

Jacqueline Scholz came back to Cayuga Community College determined to earn her degree in Nursing and launch a career dedicated to helping others. Now, thanks to her hard work and the support of SUNY Reconnect, she’s closer to accomplishing both goals.

Scholz, now in her second year as a Nursing student at Cayuga and serving as the President of the Nursing Club on the Auburn Campus, said she wasn’t positive she could continue at Cayuga before her advisor told her she was eligible for SUNY Reconnect.

“As a single mother with five kids, it’s very hard to carve out time for college and guarantee that I could pay tuition. I can’t tell you for sure that I could have been here without SUNY Reconnect,” she said. “The peace of mind it offers is everything. It’s life-changing for me.”

Launched in 2025, SUNY Reconnect offers adults 25-55 years of age the chance to earn free select career-focused degrees in fields like healthcare, education and advanced manufacturing. Students have to live in New York State and can study part-time or full-time. The program covers the cost of tuition, fees, books and supplies after other forms of tuition assistance are applied.

Scholz is no stranger to being a college student. She previously earned degrees in Business Administration and Liberal Arts and Science: Math and Science from Cayuga, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Le Moyne College. After a successful career in advertising and marketing, she earned her LPN from Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES.

That passion for helping people, and the reputation of the Nursing program at Cayuga, drove her back to college to pursue a Associate in Applied Science in Nursing.

She re-enrolled at Cayuga in 2025 but initially wasn’t eligible for SUNY Reconnect. Scholz became eligible after Gov. Kathy Hochul and SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. expanded the Reconnect program to allow students with prior college degrees to earn another degree in Nursing.

Scholz said between her fellow students, instructors, and academic coach Brenda Forrest, the program offers excellent support and puts students in position to excel.

“This is such a great program. Its reputation is outstanding, and the staff and faculty all go above and beyond. I can’t say enough about them. Everyone is invested in our success and is passionate about helping us become the best nurses possible,” she said.

Scholz knows there’s plenty of work to do before she graduates, but she’s already thinking about next steps. She’s particularly interested in working in a medical surgical unit at area hospitals, but is open to other possibilities as well.

Most of all, she wants the chance to help people, a passion she developed from her first job as a babysitter when she saved a child’s life.

“Ever since my first job as a babysitter, I knew I wanted to help people as a career. Raising five children of my own, with four in college right now, I feel like I set a high standard by earning my earlier degrees. They’ve followed that example and have done tremendous work. Now, I can pursue my passion of a career in nursing, and I know that I’ll have the chance to do that because of how hard I’ve trained here at Cayuga.”