Alumni Profiles
Trudy Fitton
JCC right choice for new career
When Trudy Fitton found a good-paying job in a local plant in Hillsdale after high school, she thought she didn’t need to go to college. Later, after working for two Hillsdale-area factories that ended up closing, it was time to find a new career.
Losing her job was difficult and other personal challenges arose in her life, but Fitton decided she wasn’t going to sit back and not do something. Fitton registered for classes at Jackson Community College’s Hillsdale LeTarte Center. “I was very nervous, but I knew I could do it,” she said. “It was a challenge, and I enjoy challenges.”
Becoming a medical assistant was the product of her own experience as a patient. In 2002, Fitton had her gallbladder out and shortly after that developed hydrocephalus, an increase of fluid on the brain. She had to have a hole drilled in her head and a shunt put in to clear it. That experience, along with her childhood desire to become a nurse, sparked her interest in the health field. She chose medical assisting, a field in which multi-skilled workers are trained in the business and clinical sides of a medical office.
“My experience at JCC was good, I ended up with a high grade point average and really enjoyed it,” she said. She finished in December 2006 with her Associate in Applied Science degree in medical assistant.
Today she is working in a Jackson obstetrician’s office and is enjoying her new career choice. “I think it’s the best thing you can do (going back to school). It really opens the door for a lot more opportunity,” Fitton said. “I have two teen-aged daughters, and I think it sets a good example to show them that they can do it if you just apply yourself.”
