Nursing graduate proves ‘any dream is within reach’
Lying on a gurney before surgery, teenager Tori Thomas didn’t realize her life was about to change. The nurse anesthetist who appeared beside Thomas was pretty, kind … and looked like her.
“I never thought somebody like me could be in a role like that,” she said.
Today, Thomas wears nurse scrubs herself, thanks to finishing San Jacinto College’s licensed vocational nurse to registered nurse transition program this past May. While the nurse anesthetist might have sparked the dream, it took Thomas plenty of tears and sweat to bring that vision to life.
Getting on her feet
Growing up near Houston’s Fifth Ward, the oldest of six, Thomas served as a second mom to her siblings.
“High school was a blur as I juggled adult responsibilities alongside my studies,” Thomas said.
When Army enlistment didn’t pan out, the new high school graduate moved in with her grandma near the North Campus. Loving but tough, her grandma urged her to do something with her life. That something materialized through a San Jac certified nurse aide program flyer.
The fast-track program led to a nursing home job, then a patient care assistant role at a hospital, where Thomas saw more people like her in health care roles. She decided to return to San Jac to pursue nursing.
Hurdling obstacles
In 2016, after she completed the certified nurse aide program, her dad and two grandparents
passed away. When she started San Jac’s vocational nursing program in 2021, she juggled full-time day classes, full-time night shifts, and a toddler
at home.
Despite these struggles, Thomas found support. San Jac connected her to scholarships, counseling, an on-campus food pantry, and a child care grant. North Campus day care staff and medical professionals also linked her daughter Madelyn’s unusual behavior to autism.
In 2023, Thomas started the LVN to RN transition program at the South Campus. From sleep deprivation and imposter syndrome to grueling exams, she already had enough challenges. Now she navigated transportation issues too.
Thomas zigzagged the city — dropping off Madelyn at day care or preschool, rushing to 8 a.m. classes, and booking it to clinical sites as far as Webster and required meetings for the child care grant.
“The challenge for me was to keep going,” she said. “Every day was a fight.”
Finding peace in the storm
Facing these challenges, many would crumble. But even when life felt like a “complete mess,” Thomas reframed the negative and clung to her faith.
“When I’m going through something, I really don’t worry about it because God and I already talked about this,” she said. “It’s already set in stone. I just gotta go through the motions.”
My experiences have shown me that with determination and support, any dream is within reach, no matter where you come from.
In May 2024, Thomas faced the last hurdle of her RN program — her final exams. In her most difficult class, she was barely scraping by. Again, she trusted God.
“It was like peace in the storm,” she said.
When she opened the final grades post, she had made the exact grade she needed to pass her hardest class.
Today, Thomas works in a hospital emergency room, where she enjoys educating patients and showing them how to take better care of themselves. Just as she would with her daughter, she meets them where they are.
“Everybody has different ways of learning, and you just have to make observations — ask the right questions,” she said. “I just sit there with them, and we figure it out together. That's the part I love.”
Reaching dreams
With the storm over, life feels surreal to Thomas now.
“I’m trying to figure out how to be proud of myself,” she said. “I’m not in fight-or-flight mode anymore.”
Joy mixes with sadness as she remembers her biggest champions — like her close friend Danzel Atkins, her 4 a.m. wake-up call, who passed away last fall. She thanks all who encouraged her: her mom, coworkers, San Jac professors and peers, best friend Melisa, and praying grandma.
But Thomas isn’t done yet. She recently started San Jac’s online Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. Her ultimate dream? To become a nurse anesthetist like the one who sparked it all.
“My experiences have shown me that with determination and support, any dream is within reach, no matter where you come from,” she said.
