Paradise Valley Community College Alumna Miranda Yost couldn’t avoid her fate. Raised by psychiatric professionals (her mom’s a psych nurse and her dad’s a counselor), Miranda began her dream of becoming a dancer at the young age of three. However, after 15 years dancing and performing as a classical ballerina in productions like the Nutcracker and Swan Lake, her injuries got the best of her and she had to reexamine her future, which led her into the family business.
Miranda began attending PVCC while still in high school through the Early College Programs. In 2013, she started full time at PVCC, going on to earn her Associate’s degree in dance. While rehabilitating her injured knee after graduation in 2016, Miranda took eight months off from dancing to figure out what else she enjoyed doing. She knew she enjoyed working with kids and had an interest in psychology.
Miranda had a birds-eye view into psychiatric nursing watching her mother work for years. Pursuing psychiatric nursing is in her blood. For three years, she worked with inpatient psych patients, 12-to-17 years old with various debilitating mental illnesses like bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia to suicidal and homicidal tendencies. She left her job in December 2020 to concentrate on finishing her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing at GCU.
For almost a year now, Miranda has been working as a nurse in adult acute-care. For Miranda this was a “big change after only working in psych for so long, but I’m loving it! I’m learning and growing a lot.” Miranda works as a preceptor for nursing students and plans to continue her education with a Master’s degree next, although she is unsure which route to pursue, either practitioner or educator.