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A Milwaukee teen has received her nursing degree before graduating high school.
According to TMJ 4, 17-year-old Imunique Triplett was pinned as a licensed practical nurse after finishing a program in a partnership between MATC, Milwaukee Public Schools and UW-Milwaukee.
"It still feels unreal," Imunique says.
She says the workload was more than she planned on having. "I actually went into my high school freshman year thinking, 'I'm not going to be able to maintain a GPA above a 3.0,'" she told TMJ 4.
James Sokolowski, MPS' post-secondary engagement coordinator, helped Imunique while she was in the program. "We are trying to work together to build pipelines for students so that they really see the connection of what they're doing in high school, how it can connect to college and their future careers," Sokolowski noted.
Imunique now has a job at an area nursing facility and because of the program, she has zero student debt.
Several students have gone through the MATC program, but Erin Cherney, MATC's manager of high school relations, says not all of the students who go through the program finish a two-year secondary degree while they are in high school.
"When she said she was going to pass – tears. Just straight tears," Cherney says. "Because of the hurdles she jumped through, because of the drive that she had. I know how hard it was, especially during a pandemic."
Imunique wants to become an RN, but her teachers believe she can go further and become a nurse practitioner.
"I feel like it definitely should be an opportunity for other people to be able to take," Imunique added. "They should really know about the program."