STOCKTON, Calif. — Just a few days into the fall semester, white coats have become a common sight across the campus of San Joaquin Delta College. They're worn by students like Kailee Cabrera, who after one more semester will be able to chase her lifelong dreams.
"I'm a third-semester nursing student at Delta," Cabrera said. "It's so close, it seems very... surreal."
Even after Cabrera is gone, faculty members will have plenty of work left to do and plenty of aspiring nurses to teach.
The college said there was a nearly two-fold increase in nursing students enrolled between 2022 and 2024, despite a nationwide nurse shortage.
"It's really exciting to see," said full-time nursing faculty member Amanda Lee Sakoda. "Having a program here at Delta College in the community college setting allows them to come to the program, go through it, learn the skills that they need and then go out and practice right away with an associate's degree."
At Delta College, the skills are learned hands-on. The program features labs that look like hospital rooms. Mannequins are able to take in IVs, cough, lose teeth, talk back to students and have their own heart rates.
"The technology and having realism in the labs is attractive to students as well," Sakoda said.
That extra attraction, which also included lab and classroom renovations, was made possible over the summer by $3.8 million in federal funding secured by Congressman Josh Harder.
While Cabrera might have just missed the chance to take full advantage of the improvements, Azareel Okebugwu is starting her first semester at the perfect time.
"Right now, it's been pretty, pretty tense, but that doesn't mean it's been bad or anything like that," Okebugwu said. "Although it does seem very tense and rigorous in the very first weeks, just make sure that you are confident in what you're doing."
Delta College is already accepting applications for its nursing program for the spring semester.
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