June 23, 2025

Stella Willoughby needed a moment to herself. Everything felt like too much. She just got notice that she lost her job as the rowing coach at Lake Washington Rowing Club. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of uncertainty. Many industries were shut down, and many people lost their jobs. Willoughby was one of them, but she used the time of uncertainty to her advantage.

“During this time, I realized that I wanted to do something more important to the people in my community. Coaching was great, and I loved being a part of the rowing community, but that was not everything. I wanted to do more, so I dreamed up nursing again,” said Willoughby.

Willoughby grew up in a small town between Nevada and California before moving to Olympia, Washington, at the age of 14. Sports had always been something she loved doing. She started with ballet, switched to swimming, and eventually found her passion in rowing.

As time passed, sports became more than just a hobby for her. “My family was not very wealthy when we were growing up, and I always knew that I needed a sports scholarship in order to go to college,” she said. Willoughby dedicated her life to this goal, and it worked out. In 2011 she was recruited by Martin Stone, the head coach of the women’s rowing team of the University of Notre Dame. Stone offered her a spot on the roster and a full scholarship.

What followed were four successful years competing in the varsity four-boat at Notre Dame. In three out of her four years, Willoughby competed in the NCAA championship.

"Being a part of such a well-established program was an excellent experience. I’m grateful for every minute there. I learned so much, even outside of rowing. Our coach instilled a lot of great things in me, like perseverance and motivation. All things I feel I still live by to this day,” she shared.

Besides rowing, Willoughby’s second big passion has always been nursing. At Notre Dame, she decided to study nursing. However, the transition from public high school to being a student-athlete at a private university was big. “I tried really hard to pursue nursing at that time, but with my responsibilities as a Division I athlete, I was not able to keep up academically. I needed to have a certain GPA in order to keep my scholarship,” she admitted. She switched her major from nursing to theology and, regrettably, gave up her childhood dream of becoming a nurse.

After graduation, Willoughby worked in physical therapy while staying active in the rowing community. By 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible for athletes to compete, especially those in underfunded sports like rowing. So, in 2022, she and her husband, Jeff, moved to Philadelphia so he could pursue medical school, and she went back to school to finish the prerequisites needed to get into a nursing program.

When looking for schools for her nursing degree, the decision to go to Drexel University felt easy. “There are a lot of good schools in the area like Penn, Villanova, Jefferson or Temple, but I felt that Drexel’s combination of shortness of time, resources available to students and reach in the community stood out the most,” she said.

In 2024 Willoughby started Drexel’s ACE program, an accelerated nursing degree program that offers students who have previously graduated with a bachelor’s degree the chance to go back to school for an 11-month nursing program. “It’s very fast-paced. It ramps up quickly, but the way Drexel has organized it makes the program doable if you are willing and able to dedicate a year,” she said.

Willoughby felt that Drexel did an excellent job of providing the necessary resources, guidance, feedback and help she needed to complete her nursing degree in 11 months. “As a nurse, you have to be able to do the hands-on things and Drexel is providing that. The simulation lab is amazing. I could always go in and practice my skills anytime. The people who work there are practitioners themselves and are a great resource to learn. I think without that it would have been much more difficult to pass some of the aspects of the nursing program,” she acknowledged.

Willoughby felt prepared to work in hospitals three times a week thanks to the Drexel nursing program, she said. “Drexel does an excellent job of not only training you to pass your NCLEX board exam but also to be a very professional nurse by the time you graduate,” she asserted.

In March, she completed her degree, and in April, she passed all her necessary exams to become a licensed nurse. Willoughby knows exactly what she wants to do in the future.

“I have a drive to work as a sexual assault nurse examiner. I think this type of work is really necessary. I want to help patients who go through very vulnerable parts of their lives,” Willoughby said.

Fourteen years after Willoughby gave up her aspirations of a nursing career at Notre Dame, that dream finally came true. In May, she started working as a nurse at Reading Hospital.