OXFORD — The benefits of participating in adult education are for keeps. Just ask Maggie Miller, a single mother with years of health care experience, and Maylyn Hastings, a senior at Telstar High School in Bethel, young women who are taking certified nursing classes through Oxford Hills/Nezinscot Adult Ed.

Miller is a single mother to two girls who plans to complete her master’s degree in nursing and a nurse practitioner program.

“My passion is serving others through health care,” she says. “I have worked in the field for the last decade in various specialties.

“I got my start right here, at Stephens Memorial Hospital in emergency department administration. Since then, I have worked in family medicine, brain injury rehabilitation, inpatient oncology, psych, and geriatrics.”

Miller works at an assisted living facility in Westbrook but anticipates a return to emergency medicine in the future.

“I am taking the CNA course because I’m always looking to expand my knowledge and what I can do to help others,” she explains. “As well as improve my means of providing for my daughters.”

Miller’s medical training will also be important in the future when she is ready to pursue her personal passion for rabbits. She currently has two, an American fuzzy lop named Cedric and a Holland lop named Luna.

“I take every chance I get to spread knowledge of how to properly care for those beautiful little beings,” she says. “I fully intend to open my own rabbit rescue when I have the property and means to do so.”

Hastings joined the CNA course to explore a burgeoning interest in medicine while she was still a student.

“I decided taking this class would be a great way to build the foundation and gain experience at the same time,” she shares. “I wasn’t sure this would become my chosen career path, and being still in high school, I knew this would be hard work.

“Now we have a little less than a month until graduation and this class has brought clarity to me.”

She has decided not to study nursing when she goes to college but plans to work as a CNA.

“This class has shown me my drive to help people, about the desperate need for dedicated CNAs, and given my life skills I will take with me for the rest of my life,” she says. “Had I not made the decision to take this class, I would still be questioning if I am making the right choice.

“All in all, I am so thankful for the opportunity. I cannot wait to use all the life skills I have learned through this class as I further my education.”