Photos: Courtesy of the USFAA
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She found time to mentor other ambitious nurses, tutoring them for their board exams. And she continued to pursue her own education. After graduating from a threeyear program at Hillsborough Community College and receiving her registered nurse’s license, she learned that new standards were being put in place requiring RNs to hold a bachelor’s degree. So when USF started its nursing program in 1973, she was among the first to enroll.
You just say ‘it is what it is’ to yourself and work to make things better. You support those things that can propel you forward.” – Geraldine McKinnon Twine
Again, she attended classes part-time while working full-time, and she remembers the support she received from faculty, supervisors and colleagues along the way. They helped with scheduling so she could make her plan work, and they encouraged her to keep going. “I think the Lord helped a lot, too,” she says. Twine received her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1978 and just kept going, earning her master’s in technology
52 UNIVERSITY of SOUTH FLORIDA
education in 1981 and a master’s in nursing in 1988. And, yes, her determination and belief in hard work and a good education caught on with the Twine kids. Both Barbara and Debra received their bachelor’s degrees from USF, and Barbara went on to earn her juris doctor degree from the University of Florida. She is now the Honorable Barbara Twine Thomas, a judge in Hillsborough County’s 13th Judicial Circuit.
