At 63, This Michigan Nursing Student Is Proving It’s Never Too Late to Chase Your Dream
- At 63, Margie Dziurka is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in nursing after enrolling in school at age 58.
- Margie spent decades caring for family members before returning to school to fulfill a promise to her mother.
- With encouragement from her family and help from Michigan’s Futures for Frontliners program, she’s now on track to graduate in 2027.
Image: davenport.edu
For most people, their early 60s might mean thinking about retirement. For 63-year-old Margie Dziurka, it means studying for exams, attending lectures, and working toward her dream of becoming a registered nurse.
Margie, a nursing student at Davenport University’s Midland campus in Michigan, is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in nursing. While many of her classmates are decades younger, Margie says age has never been a reason to put her dreams on hold.
“Age is only a number,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are. You have to live out your dreams, and you have to be happy.”
A Lifetime of Care Before Nursing School
Margie graduated from Central High School in 1981. At the time, she remembers wanting to become either a nurse or a lawyer. Life, however, took her down a different path.
She married at 21, and when her second child was born prematurely, college plans had to wait. To support her family while staying connected to patient care, Margie became a certified nursing assistant.
Over the years, caring for others became a constant theme in her life.
She helped care for her husband’s father after he suffered a stroke and later supported his mother through Alzheimer’s disease. Her son faced six orthopedic surgeries within five months, including a month-long hospital stay for bilateral leg reconstruction, and Margie was there through every step of his recovery.
Later, when her own mother experienced a brain bleed, Margie once again stepped into a caregiving role. She cared for her mother for three years and even paused her own education so her sister could finish nursing school first.
Before her mother passed away, Margie made a promise: she would return to school and earn her nursing degree.
Today, she’s keeping that promise.
From Frontline Work to Futures for Frontliners
After her mother’s death and near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Margie qualified for Michigan’s Futures for Frontliners program, a state scholarship that provided tuition-free community college to frontline workers who served during the state’s 2020 shutdown. The program was created to support essential workers without college degrees who kept the state running between April 1 and June 30, 2020.
Margie enrolled in school at age 58 with the goal of becoming a licensed practical nurse. Before long, that goal grew into something bigger. She continued her education to earn her RN and is now working toward her bachelor’s degree in nursing at Davenport.
She is currently expected to graduate in May 2027.
Back to School After Four Decades
Going back to school after more than four decades away from the classroom brought its own set of challenges.
“I graduated in 1981 from Central High School. So can you imagine going out of school, from being out of school that long?” Margie said.
Technology, new teaching methods, and advanced coursework all made the transition an adjustment. Still, Margie embraced the experience and the generational differences between herself and her classmates.
“I had an adjunct professor the age of my daughter, it was comical,” she said.
Instead of feeling out of place, Margie leaned into her role as what she jokingly calls the “class mom.”
“I’d walk in with my mom bag with snacks for the kids,” she said. “They’d laugh, but they loved it.”
A Family Cheering Her On
Margie’s two adult children, now 37 and 38, live in Massachusetts and Lansing and have become some of her biggest supporters. They have watched her care for others her whole life and now get to see her finally invest in her own dream.
“They tell all their friends about my wins,” she said. “They’ll say, ‘My mom is doing it, man.’”
Her husband, who retired a year ago, has taken over every household duty so Margie can focus fully on school.
“I’ve not picked up a broom, a dustpan, I haven’t picked up the laundry basket,” she said. “He does every single thing that needs to be done in this house, just so I can focus only on school.”
What Margie’s Story Means for Nursing
Davenport’s Midland campus offers in-person programs designed to support adult learners like Margie, including a state-of-the-art nursing lab and scholarships for nursing students.
For nurses and future nurses reading this, Margie’s journey is a reminder that the path into nursing does not have to be straight or fast to be meaningful. Whether you are fresh out of high school, raising a family, or thinking about a second career, Margie’s message is simple and hopeful: age is only a number, and it is never too late to chase your dream of becoming a nurse.
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