Active-Duty Marine Life to Nursing at Arizona College of Nursing

This is a multi-part series celebrating Arizona College of Nursing students, their stories, and their embodiment of the AZCN values.     

In 2023, Arizona College of Nursing established the AZCN Values Scholarship Fund as a way to celebrate our values with our colleagues, our students, and the communities in which we serve. Each time an AZCN colleague recognizes another colleague for demonstrating our values, $5 is added to the scholarship fund. These add up to $5,000 scholarships awarded to students the following year who have demonstrated our values within their communities.     

Join us in celebrating 2025 AZCN Values Scholarship recipient Joseph Ferriola as he shares some of his journey to nursing:  

From the Military to a BSN Student 

  

Meet AZCN Values Scholarship Recipient, Joseph Ferriola, a Nursing Student at the AZCN Phoenix Campus. Joseph was a nearly sixteen-year active-duty Marine and lifelong admirer of the healthcare profession. After making the difficult decision to leave the service and a PTSD diagnosis, a therapist suggested Joseph could “heal others to heal himself,” leading him to apply to Arizona College of Nursing to find a renewed sense of purpose. 

Watch Joseph’s video here:   

Joseph Shares His Path to Nursing 

Prior to entering Arizona College of Nursing, I was an active-duty Marine for almost sixteen years. It was my childhood dream to serve the United States in a capacity larger than myself. Through my time in the military, I served in many roles and billets, ranging from combat, humanitarian, to instructor and helping people in twelve different countries between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. During this time, I was exposed to the varying and beautiful cultures that the world has to offer. These experiences and understanding will aid in my abilities to treat each patient with the respect they deserve. 

Unfortunately, I had to make the hard decision to exit active-duty service due to growing mental health concerns. I was diagnosed with PTSD in January 2022 due to multiple traumatic events that I have experienced and after a year and a half of seeking assistance I left the Marines on my own terms to begin my healing journey. I have always admired healthcare professionals and their dedication to their duties but never thought I was good enough to make it myself. It wasn’t until a therapy session in the summer of 2024, it was suggested to me to “heal others to heal myself.” One week later, I applied to Arizona College of Nursing and feel reborn with a sense of purpose. Having my own struggles with mental health due to military trauma will aid me in my care and understanding with patients who may be unknowingly or knowingly struggling themselves. 

Lastly, the biggest influence on my decision to pursue my nursing degree was my best friend, Jordan Shemanski. We were Inseparable during our 2015-2016 Marine Special Operations Company deployment to the Arabian Peninsula. He was my brother. During this deployment, we were exposed to a variety of hazardous environments, and unfortunately, he developed stomach cancer due to this and was officially diagnosed at the end of 2016. During his battle with cancer, his admiration for the oncology nurses who took care of him always gave me comfort and that my brother was in the best care possible. In January 2020, Jordan lost his battle, and this journey is my way of repaying the medical staff who provided him comfort throughout his battle and to make him proud that, like him, I never gave up. 

Q&A with Joseph 

What got you started on your nursing journey? 

How did your time in the military impact your decision to pursue nursing? 

Over the last couple years of my military career, I noticed a drastic decline in my mental health, [but] I didn’t want to identify it. When life was getting hard, I would just compartmentalize it, but it got to be too much. I knew I couldn’t continue that way because I had no joy in life. Every day was a grind, every day was hard, and every day was a struggle because on my last deployment, I had my best friend. We were partners on deployment. I vividly remember that he would have stomach pains constantly. 

When we got back from the deployment and he got a test, it ended up being cancer. That was a big shock. He was family, and [cancer is] never expected. He was such a motivation for me to make this decision as well because throughout his battle, he’d always talk about his nursing staff and his oncology nurses and how much they took care of him, especially when he got into hospice. I think that’s what this whole journey is for me. I want to be that for others and use all these experiences I’ve had in life to help people who are in either mental distress or struggling with PTSD or something like that. It’s such a familiar ground for me. I know what goes on in the head because I, unfortunately, struggle with it as well. Me getting out was more of a focus on I need to fix myself in a way and learn to live again, and then to be with my family and to just grow. It was one of my therapy sessions through the VA and my therapist suggested to me, ‘how about you heal others to heal yourself?’ And it kind of hit me like a brick. I never thought I was smart enough for it. I never thought I could get into college. I never thought I could do it. And then that week we found Arizona College of Nursing. 

What did it feel like to get an interview with Arizona College of Nursing? How did you know it was the place for you? 

I got the interview and they set up an appointment to go over the whole itinerary in the program. Arizona College of Nursing is just so welcoming to veterans. I think that’s the biggest factor for me was that the staff knew how to navigate the GI Bill, and then the structure that’s behind the schooling. There’s no lapse, there’s no delay. You know what’s coming, you know the schedule, you know when things are due, and everything like that. It’s such a familiar feeling from being in the military. I wish that when veterans leave service that this was one of the schools that they would tell us about because there’s so many military members that just want to help. 

 That’s mainly the reason why they go into the military, to help on a scale beyond themselves. If people knew how many campuses were around the United States and how they could go to them, it would help so many more veterans to know that this school is out there. Getting accepted into this school, the process, and how organized and welcoming they are really gives me something to live for again. I wanted to do something that felt unreachable for myself and I just fell in love with it. I love the critical thinking behind it and the fast-paced nature of it, but I’m more excited to hone in on those nursing skills and understand why we do what we do or why nurses do what they do. It’s just a different level of encouragement. Everybody wants to see you pass and make it through, and it’s incredible. I never thought college would be like that, where everybody wants you to succeed. I want to help everyone around me on a different level. I’m so used to being in the military and helping in that way, but I feel like there’s a different level of respect for medical professionals. It was just something that I never thought I could achieve. 

What was it like to apply and ultimately receive this Values Scholarship Award? 

The Values Scholarship was the first time I ever put my life out into the open. Receiving this award is the validation that I can do this, I can make it, and that I made the right choice. 

Information in this post is accurate as of March 2, 2026.

*The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program at Arizona College of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (https://www.aacnnursing.org/). All Arizona College of Nursing and Arizona College campuses are institutionally accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (https://www.abhes.org/), a U.S. Department of Education-recognized accrediting agency.