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Karen Noffke and several family members have been able to take advantage of Lake Land Community College education to further their professional lives. Now she has time to enjoy grandchildren Ava and Audrey Warren who may go LLC.

•October 4, 2017•

By Erin Valentine
for the News Progress

Karen (Hendrix) Noffke has been going to school most of her life.

And from an early age, nursing was her chosen profession.

“I even have a little kindergarten story when they ask you want to be when you grow up. I wanted to be a nurse,” said Noffke. “And it came true.”

The 1981 Mattoon High School graduate left home in rural Mattoon to move to her own apartment in town soon after graduation. She chose Lake Land College’s nursing program, allowing her to support herself and continue her education.

“Lake Land was local and affordable,” she said. “I was putting myself through school so I worked every weekend at the Odd Fellow-Rebekah Home. That was a bummer back then, and I went to school Monday through Friday,” she said. She worked as a certified nurse assistant at the home (“back then, you didn’t have to be trained first”), and in two years, earned her LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) degree from Lake Land. In just two more years (1985), Noffke earned the ADN (Associate Degree in Nursing) at Lake Land, thanks to a partnership the school had with Illinois Eastern Community Colleges in Olney.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.