Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

18-year-old Christiansen to earn PCC nursing degree

Photos and story by James Hill

PORTLAND, Ore. – On Friday, June 13, 18-year-old nursing student Karen Christiansen of Hillsboro will file into the cavernous Memorial Coliseum in northeast Portland, ready to walk the stage to receive her diploma. Not only is she the youngest graduate of the PCC nursing class, all 104 of them, she is also the youngest ever nursing graduate of Portland Community College. “It has been a long road,” she said of the rigorous associate’s degree program, a note of satisfaction in her voice. “I was 16 when I started, ” she added. Christiansen plans to earn a bachelor’s degree from Oregon Health Science University with a focus on pediatric nursing. She wants to work in a pediatric intensive care unit. The teenager started taking PCC classes when she was just 13 to supplement her home schooling. She attended Glencoe High School her freshman and sophomore years but at age 15 returned to PCC’s Rock Creek Campus. “I hit the limit on the courses I could take at Glencoe,” she explained. “For example, they didn’t offer anything above calculus.”Why nursing? “I have a long history of nurses and heath care providers in my family,” she said, “and I always knew I would go into some kind of science or math-type field.” Christiansen also spent several years volunteering at Good Samaritan Hospital to get a feel for nursing. Once back at PCC, she decided to test for the GED instead of continuing with credits toward the traditional high school diploma. “I looked at the high school program at PCC,” she said, “but in looking at the requirements, the GED was just fine with me.” Once she earned a GED, Christiansen was eligible to apply for the nursing program and entered the Sylvania Campus program in the fall of 2001. PCC Nursing instructor Therese Vogel is proud of her young student and her accomplishments. “Although she is just 18, she has so much maturity for her age,” she said. “In fact, Susan Horkey, the pediatric nurse who supervised Karen, told me, ‘She’s the best student I have ever worked with.’” Christiansen proved her mettle in two internships, first at Dorenbecher Children’s Hospital, and in the last term of her coursework, in the pediatric intensive care unit at Legacy Emanuel hospital.Vogel explained, “I have to be really careful who I put there and can only put our top students who can think on their feet. They usually give them just one (patient) in a setting like this because the pediatric population can change at a drop of a hat and there is a lot of equipment, plus patients with strong drugs, multiple IV lines; these are the sickest kids you could have and she did just beautifully. “Her knowledge is thorough. She’s learning and analyzing all the time,” added Vogel.Her parents, Dan and Kathy Christiansen, and her two younger sisters will be on hand to celebrate Christiansen’s achievements at the PCC commencement. The June 13 ceremony is set for 7 to 9 p.m.