Frank Baez was a teenager when he started working as a hospital janitor at New York University to help support his family. Fourteen years later he walked away from the same school with a nursing degree in his hand and a smile on his face.
The 29-year-old could barely speak a word of English when he moved to New York from the Dominican Republic with his mother, Good Morning America reported.
At the time he was more concerned with helping his family get by than with looking at career options, so he set out to find a job that could help put food on the table.
Baez eventually managed to find work mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms and patient rooms at New York University's Langone Tisch Hospital. It was in the hospital wards that he began to form an idea of where he wanted his life to head.
"While working [at NYU] with the nurses, I realized I wanted to be one of them," Baez said. "I learned how much they advocate for their patients and the passion they have for their job."
He eventually managed to secure a job as a patient transporter, which involved moving patients through the hospital to have tests and other procedures done, then went on to finish his bachelor's degree at Hunter College, making him the first person in his family to graduate.
But Baez's mind kept wandering back to NYU. He found a job as a unit clerk at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital, where got a feel for what a nurse's job entailed.
"I felt inspired by them to become a nurse, so I told them 'I want to be a nurse like you guys,'" he told CNN. "I was inspired by their work and everything they do for their patients."
Baez entered an accelerated 15-month program at the NYU's Rory Meyers College of Nursing, where he got his nursing degree after many long nights of studying.
"It was a very intense program, I'll tell you that. It was a lot of work," he told CNN. "It was worth it, it paid off at the end. Here I am now, a graduated nurse."
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