Blinn College vocational nursing student uses initial failure as motivation

Joshua Talavera among those who will be pinned at June 13 ceremony

June 6, 2024

Failure was one of the best things that ever happened to Blinn College District vocational nursing student Joshua Talavera.

Talavera, from the small Texas town of Harper 20 miles from Fredericksburg, admits he wasn’t prepared for his first attempt in the program.

“I ended up failing the second semester,” he said. “I had to reevaluate everything that was going on and I realized that I really did want to go into nursing and nothing was going to stop me from doing that. I had to kind of get out of my own way and believe that if you want to achieve something, you have to expect to achieve it. When I came back, I took it a lot more seriously.”

Talavera graduated as one of the top students in Blinn’s 2024 graduating class and was pinned during a June 13 ceremony at the Dr. W.W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center on the Brenham Campus.

“There’s a huge difference to what he’s doing now and what he was doing then,” Program Director Michelle Marburger said. “I think it was a hard knock, to be honest, when he didn’t make it the first time. I think he took that to heart and did a lot of self-reflection. His determination is so different now than it was then. There’s no stopping him now. That drive, that desire, is there.”

Talavera didn’t have to look far to find his career niche. His grandmother was a vocational nurse for 40 years. He also spent a lot of time in hospitals after a rambunctious youth contributed to a broken arm, collarbone, and wrist, along with a torn knee ligament.

“I basically grew up in a hospital,” he said, “and I would watch my grandmother on days when I could go with her. I would watch how she did her job and how she enjoyed taking care of patients. Honestly, I could see how happy she was doing it. It was kind of a calling.”

Blinn’s small, personalized classes and outstanding licensure exam pass rate convinced Talvera that Blinn was where he needed to be.

“I definitely wanted to go into a program where I could be successful,” he said. “It’s a hard program. They don’t sugarcoat it, but there is definitely an attitude of ‘what can we do to help you be successful? You let me know what we can do and we can provide that for you.’”

Talavera, who lives in College Station and makes the daily commute to Brenham, said he plans to become a registered nurse and work in a clinic setting.

“Looking at him from last year to this year … it’s like looking at night and day,” Marburger said. “The difference is amazing.”

Program graduates are eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-PN) and the Nursing Jurisprudence Examination and are considered licensed vocational nurses after passing both exams.

According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, almost 98% of Blinn’s graduates from the program during the past three years have found jobs in the profession. Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, vocational nurses earn a median salary of $59,730.

For more information regarding Blinn’s Vocational Nursing Program, visit www.blinn.edu/vocational-nursing.