ICU Nurse gave her children the confidence they need to succeed by earning her RN degree

Lifelong Fremont resident Amber Riedmaier-Fisher started her education at Terra State Community College in 1996 when she was still in high school. The 1997 Fremont Ross graduate was a Post-secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) student at that time. “I have just applied for grad school at Walden University,” Riedmaier-Fisher says. “All of my classes from 1996 are transferring. That is amazing to me.”

After graduating from high school, Riedmaier-Fisher started classes full time at Terra State. She wanted to pursue either something in the arts or nursing. At the juncture in her life, Riedmaier-Fisher chose the arts route and graduated with an Associate of Applied Science in Graphic Design. With that degree, she worked as a freelance graphic designer for the next 12 years from her home as she raised two daughters.

As in life, Riedmaier-Fisher experienced some changes and needed to find a steady position that provided a better income and health insurance. “The graphic design career no longer worked for my life. It worked when I needed the flexibility to stay home and raise my children,” she recalls. “But, when I needed something a little different, I turned back to Terra State.” Riedmaier-Fisher returned to Terra State full time while she worked full time. In 2015, she graduated from Terra State’s nursing program and found work immediately at ProMedica Toledo Hospital Nurse Residency Program for the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). “This was a paid residency that trains you for a specialty. For six months, I learned how to be a Level 1 Trauma ICU Nurse.”

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  DegreeRegistered Nursing
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  Average Length of Study

  2 years, Full time

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  Average Cost

  $13,065

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  Employer

  ProMedica

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  Job Title

  Registered Nurse - ICU

• 
  Salary PotentialUp to $82,903*
 

Riedmaier-Fisher’s education did not stop there. During her three years at ProMedica Toledo Hospital, she returned to college. “ProMedica paid for me to go back to school,” Riedmaier-Fisher said. “I went through Ohio University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. It only took me one and a half years to get my diploma.” Her employer is still paying for more education, too. “I applied and got accepted at Walden University. I will be studying for two years in the Adult Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program. By 2020, I will have a master’s degree. My goal was to have my education completed by the time my daughters had graduated high school and I have done that.”

Riedmaier-Fisher believes her career success that started at Terra State has given her children the confidence they need to succeed. “I have one daughter who is going to college in the fall,” she says. “She watched me get to where I am and I think that is why she is so successful. She got into the elite aerospace engineering program at the University of Dayton. My sixteen-year-old is in the College Credit Plus program at Terra State, so I think everything has come full circle.”

*Possible salary information based on averages from salary.com