Purdue Global Grad and Mom of 5 Says There’s No Perfect Moment
Katie Cornelius graduated from Purdue Global in 2023 with her master’s degree — and fulfilled her dream of becoming a nurse practitioner. (Purdue Global photo/Kelsey Lefever)
Now a family nurse practitioner, Katie Cornelius earned her master’s in nursing with Purdue Global — and it changed everything
Katie Cornelius explains on a rainy Saturday morning that, in a rare event, her kids' baseball games have been canceled. Her noble efforts to look disappointed are relatable to any parent who’s ever held an overwhelmed umbrella on school bleachers while their jeans soak up a metric ton of rainwater.
“Oh ... no,” she says. “I’m so ... dry and comfortable.”
Cornelius (MS nursing ’23) tries not to laugh too hard about her nondisappointment, but this moment of thinly veiled relief is the exception to the rule. Because, in fact, her spot on those bleachers was not only planned — it was hard earned. It was what she always wanted.
And Purdue Global was the first step toward that dream.
Choosing a different career path
Cornelius was a labor and delivery nurse for 15 years, and she loved it. But when she was pregnant with baby No. 4, she saw trouble coming.
“I was suddenly really aware of how physical the job is when it became difficult for me to walk the hospital floors,” she says. “I was 37 years old at that time, and I’m on track to work another 25 years, at least. I realized there needs to be another option.”
There were other reasons, too. Cornelius struggled to find ways to be involved in her kids’ wide-ranging activities with the hours her job required.
“It didn’t feel sustainable at this point,” she says.
She began to consider how to get closer to weekday and daytime hours, and the next natural step became clear: earning a master’s degree to become a family nurse practitioner. It was something she had always wanted to do, and it would allow her to have more control over her schedule.
Standing there as a very pregnant mom of three and a full-time nurse, she knew it was her moment to go back.
It was a moment of both relief and anxiety. Much like parenting itself, working toward a master’s degree at that stage in life wasn’t going to be neat or without its mismatched-shoe moments.
“You can’t just wait for the ‘right time,’ or you’ll be waiting forever,” she says.
So that night, she and her husband shrugged together while she quipped, “We’ll just have to do it messy.”
Finding flexibility that works
As a labor and delivery nurse, Cornelius learned to grow comfortable with a “roll with it” approach to life.
She would also say, however, that there’s a big difference between “roll with it” and having no control. Because regardless of the twists and turns delivering a baby may take, nurses are prepared to deal with whatever happens.
Cornelius wanted to apply that same principle to her life outside the hospital. She knew she couldn’t control her age or family curveballs any more than she could make babies arrive on command, but she could prepare herself with the right skills.
“I wanted something flexible and online, something I could do while also working and having a family,” she says. “And I was looking for a program that would specifically prepare me to become a family nurse practitioner.”
It was like Purdue Global read her mind.
“I was able to take classes online that worked around my family’s schedule. There were days I was listening to recorded lectures in the car on my way to clinical rotations,” she says. “The experience was flexible with family and real life — because real life doesn’t stop when you’re in school.”
Was it messy? Absolutely. But she knew what was waiting for her at the finish line: the opportunity to work within her true calling, a career helping a community she loves, and yes — a spot on the school bleachers, where she could now cheer her kids on at every game.
“You just have to make that decision to start,” she says. “It’s not going to be perfect. You hit roadblocks along the way, and you work through it. Before you know it, years have gone by and you’ve completed your degree, and it’s just a great feeling.”
A career — and life — that fits
Cornelius is now a mother of five (baby No. 5 arrived immediately after her final class wrapped) and a family nurse practitioner at a local clinic. She has a schedule that feels sustainable, and she can keep doing what she loves: caring for others.
Beyond her original reasons for earning her master’s degree, she has found new meaning in her work.
“What I do now, I feel like I’m really making a difference,” she says. “Working as a labor and delivery nurse in the hospital is great — I loved helping women give birth every day, but I only took care of them for a few hours and went home. Now that I work as a provider, I have an ongoing relationship with my patients. I get to see the changes I make in their lives and see it through.”
For Cornelius, the journey through an online master’s degree in nursing wasn’t just about advancing her career. It was about creating a life where her work and her family could thrive together. The flexibility she found at Purdue Global gave her the tools to step into a role that supports her family and even strengthens her community.
“Having the skills and the credentials to be able to provide that for my community ... I don’t think I could ask for anything more than that,” she says. “I feel like it’s the whole point of life together. We need to take care of each other. And everybody deserves to be taken care of.”