By the time Abigail Julier Richardson became a teenager, she’d pretty much lost interest in school.
“I barely graduated,” she said, noting that she was a slow reader and often stuttered when reading aloud. “I think I got lost in the system.”
It’s no surprise, then, that Richardson, now 35, never saw herself attending college. She trained to become a real estate agent, bookkeeper and even started a horse farm in Louisiana. But when her 7-year-old son Everett was born, the single mom began rethinking her options.
This May, Richardson graduates with honors from Georgia State University’s Perimeter College with an associate degree in nursing and a job offer from Atlanta Medical Center, where she plans to work as a registered nurse after passing the national nurse’s licensure exam.
“Now I am thinking of continuing all the way to get a master’s in public health, which I for sure never dreamed I would say,” Richardson said.
Before enrolling at Perimeter College in 2013, Richardson was diagnosed with a learning disability that slows the rate at which she processes new information.
To address this, Richardson received a modification waiver from the college’s Disability Services office, which enabled her to record lectures in all of her classes.
“I’m definitely an oral learner,” she said.
Richardson also says she spent a “decent amount” of time in the college’s Learning and Tutoring Center to succeed as a nursing student.
And, when she wasn’t studying, she volunteered with the Friends of Refugees Embrace birth support program in Clarkston. In this role, she provides prenatal, postpartum, and labor and delivery support to immigrant and refugee women. She sometimes has to translate between the French-speaking women and English-speaking medical professionals. Richardson learned to speak French fluently after moving to southern France for a year with her adventurous grandmother when in high school.
“Abigail has gone above and beyond as a volunteer,” said Heidi Miller, Embrace’s community liaison. “She has supported several women during labor and childbirth, advocating for them and empowering and comforting them for long hours at a time in the hospital.”
Miller also said that Richardson helps to facilitate prenatal, childbirth, newborn care and breastfeeding classes for the refugee women.
Richardson, one of Perimeter’s 126 nursing graduates this spring, ultimately hopes to serve as an advocate for women’s healthcare issues and work to change healthcare policy.
“I think all women deserve that—a voice—just the knowledge that they can question their care,” Richardson said.