The Building Blocks of a Career: Taylor’s Story with ANU

Balancing family, school, and life is never easy—but for one Medical Assisting student, perseverance has become her defining strength. Taylor Cowles-Kokofsky lives with her husband and young son while expecting her second child in Texas. She has continued pushing forward in her education despite a difficult pregnancy. A devoted college football fan and former true-crime podcast host, she brings energy, curiosity, and resilience to everything she does. Her unwavering commitment to her goals, even in the toughest moments, is exactly why she was nominated as a Term 254 Trailblazer!

When Taylor was deciding to return to school, life had come down hard on her and her husband. Between moving from her home state of New York to Texas and losing her job, they both thought that they were being handed bad luck on a broken platter. When her husband encouraged her to return to school like she’d always wanted, Taylor reached out to another institution—but after multiple emails and calls with no response, her search led her straight to ANU.

“I contacted ANU and admissions contacted me within 15 minutes,” she recalls with a smile. “I had barely sent the email in, and when I saw [their] number pop up, I was like ‘who is this?’ And I answered it and they said. ‘oh, this is ANU!’ And I was like, ‘I just hit send! How did you read that?’”

From the moment ANU called, Taylor was ready to join classes. And admissions had her in as soon as possible. “I talked to them and I was like, ‘when can I start?’ And they were like, ‘we have classes starting in two weeks.’ And I was like, ‘great, sign me up!’” Taylor has attended other online institutions before, but she has stayed with ANU because “there is something different about ANU… which is so nice.”

It’s not just admissions that has been diligently helping Taylor at ANU, but her student advisor, Helaman Souza. “He is phenomenal… Helaman came in and I was like, ‘listen, I’m in my thirties, I’m a mom, I’m pregnant with my second. I’m not here to mess around. I just want to get this stuff done. Can we set up a meeting?’ And literally within, like, two days, he was like, ‘let’s do a meeting, let’s talk about where you’re at.’ And I was like, ‘you are a beautiful soul!’” She says with a laugh. She explains that going to college as an adult has been more difficult because of her life and work obligations. “It’s hard when you work, or when you’re a stay at home mom, you know, you have other obligations – it’s just hard to do school, and sometimes you do kind of fall off the tracks. But it’s been very nice and very rewarding to have advisors like Helaman and teachers who are really supportive, and they’re like, ‘you can do this! If you have an issue, and you have a problem, we’ll help!’”

When she first began her studies at ANU, Taylor knew she wanted to get through math class as soon as she could. She even forewarned her algebra professor, Matthew Waymack, that math did not come easy to her. “He was like, ‘it’s okay! We’ll get through it, I have faith in you, you can do it,’” she explains. “And I ended up getting an A. I remember getting my final grade and just sobbing! I was like, ‘thank you so much for everything! Like you do not understand how many times I have gone to college and had issues with a math class.’ It was that that kept me coming back. If one teacher is like this, maybe they’re all like this. I have found that a lot of the teachers are like ‘you can do it! And if you need extra help, extra time, talk to me about it, we know that you have a life outside of ANU.’”

Among those professors that Taylor regards highly like Matthew Waymack, she also specifically mentioned Stephanie Weinrich and Amy Smith. “Those three teachers – absolutely any classes they teach, get me in with them!” For Stephanie, Taylor values the consistency she gives. “She teaches so many different med classes, and she’s phenomenal teaching all of them, all of them are different, but she is the exact same in all of them. When you see her on your schedule, you’re like, ‘oh thank god!’” She describes how she reminded Stephanie that she was going to miss a class due to giving birth to her daughter, and Stephanie was excited for her and to even see the baby in class. Taylor has stayed with ANU for the professors, like Stephanie, that have invested in their students to celebrate their successes and happy moments with them.

A common misconception about online education is the idea that it is isolating and you do not connect with people. However, Taylor has found that to be the opposite of her experience at ANU. She and her fellow students created a group chat to support each other in their education, and it has blossomed since. “We’re touching base with everybody. And there’s a couple of students who have left ANU since last [term] – and they’ve stayed in the group chat,” she says.

“We are a little family, and it is nice to check in with each other, and have other people who know what you’re going through or have been through these classes.

“Like ‘I’m in this class and I don’t understand this assignment.’ And someone who has already taken this and they’re like, ‘oh hey, it’s actually like this!’” Taylor explains that some of the students have been able to meet in person, and there are talks of this group chat all coming together to meet.

The hands-on part of her education has already allowed her to use skills she has earned in real life. With the lab kits sent to Medical Assisting students, and some of her own previous medical experience, Taylor was able to check her husband for a concussion or listen to her son’s breathing when he had a cold. “Having the blood pressure cuff, I’ve been able to take [my husband’s] blood pressure. I’ve been able to utilize the stethoscope and listen to my son when he had the flu and make sure his lungs sounded fine. It’s that stuff, it’s being able to have that accessible to me, so it’s not like I’m going to the pediatrician to have them listen to my son – well I can do that.”

“We do invasive clinical procedures where we get a fake arm and we’re able to practice the blood draws. I thought that was really cool when I was researching ANU. I was like ‘you get all this stuff?!’ You don’t have to pay extra for it, it’s in your tuition! That’s amazing, because otherwise, how else are you going to learn?”

Her classes have all blended together to give her an education that connects in ways to enhance her understanding of the field.  “It’s just the collaborative effort of everything flows so nicely. So when you take anatomy and physiology, you might not remember every single bone in the body, you might not remember every single thing. But then, two or three [terms] down the road, you’re taking a class and it’s having to know the anatomy. And you’re like, ‘oh my gosh, I already know this.’ And it’s like a refresher!”

“It’s a comprehensive program. Everything builds on top of one another.”

Her future goals after she graduates from ANU include taking a small break from education and to find the true direction she wants to go with her career from where she has been. She also has goals of looking to be a registered nurse to do something she has never done before, like sports medicine.

Would she recommend ANU to other students? “100%! It’s so cohesive, it’s so easy, it just – it’s easy to sit down and make the time. And it’s so nice [ANU has] morning classes and afternoon classes, because every online college I’ve been to, they’ve only provided evening classes. And that’s hard when you work full time or you have kids, because that’s two hours away from my kids,” she says. “But to have the morning classes [at ANU], to have the opportunity, it’s so nice… It feels like you can find a place wherever you land. Whatever program you’re in, whatever you decide to do, ANU is really easy to work around everybody.”

Her advice to new students: “Listen – just listen to what your professors are saying. Make the notes of the things they were repeating,” she says with a smile. “Really lean on your other students. If you have a question, ask. They say there [are] no dumb questions – there are dumb questions, I’m not going to lie, but ask them! Because someone else has that same dumb question and they’re not going to ask. So if you ask the dumb question, you’ve asked the question for four people, because everyone had that same question.”

But her last piece of advice goes: “The other thing in being successful is having the confidence and support to do it yourself, and making sure you have a good support system.”

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