Two years ago, Brittany Conduff sat in her car outside Clinton Community College (CCC), nervous and second-guessing her decision to return to school after more than a decade away from the classroom.
“I remember texting my sister-in-law like, ‘I think I'm going to throw up.’ She was like, ‘Oh, you're fine. You got this,’” the 2025 EICC graduate said. “I was genuinely concerned I was going to school with a bunch of 18-, 19-year-olds. I thought I wouldn’t have anything in common with anyone.”
Conduff and her husband were raising five children, including twins. She also worked in a memory care facility as a lead resident assistant, handling scheduling and caring for residents. That job planted a seed, and fear about the future pushed her to act.
“I thought, realistically, what happens if something happens to my husband? He’s the primary caregiver when it comes to finances,” Conduff said. “I realized I didn’t have a marketable trait. I needed to support my kids if something happened to him.”
She began looking into nursing programs and learned about EICC from the director of nursing at the memory care facility, who was pursuing her RN. The recommendation, paired with CCC’s affordability and proximity, made it a compelling choice.
“When I met with the advisor, she was so happy and bubbly—that was the deciding factor for me,” Conduff said.
Even then, she wasn’t sure she would belong. But it didn’t take long to realize she wasn’t alone.
“I’ve made quite a few friends going here and you aren’t just a number,” Conduff said. “The biggest class I’ve had maybe had 15 people. The professor knows your name when you walk into the classroom.”
That early sense of community helped shift her perspective and her confidence.
“The first couple weeks of the first semester, I didn’t really ask questions in class. I didn’t raise my hand. Now I’m usually one of the first ones to raise my hand,” Conduff said.
The transformation has been steady and substantial. Over the last two years, she was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa, consistently earned spots on the Dean’s and President’s lists, and was nominated as a classroom leader.
And Conduff was selected to speak at CCC’s 2025 Commencement Ceremony—a role she never imagined for herself.
“Two years ago, I wasn’t a public speaker. I was nervous, quiet, withdrawn. I didn’t feel like I fit in,” she said. “Now I’ve proven to myself that I can do hard things.”
Durning her speech, Conduff shared more than her academic journey. She spoke candidly about the hardships she’s faced—losing a child and significant other, and navigating trauma from her childhood. Her message was clear: don’t be a victim of your own story.
At CCC, she discovered she is smart and she’s resilient. And, she’s not stopping. Conduff graduated in May 2025 with an Associate in Science degree and will begin EICC’s nursing program this fall. Her long-term goal is to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
She hopes her experience will inspire other adults who feel uncertain about going back to school. “There’s no harm in at least trying. If you don’t, you’ll always wonder what would have happened if you had,” Conduff said.
Graduation was a chance for her to reflect on how much she had changed—from self-doubt to self-assurance, from sitting silently in class to standing on stage. And she didn’t spend the day texting nervously from her car. She stood tall, reminding others—and herself—just how far she had come.