Idris Caldwell is Achieving His Dream

Idris Caldwell is graduating this year with an associate degree in Nursing. He is an Achieving the Dream scholar and also the recipient of several other scholarships at Community College of Philadelphia. Though his academic journey hasn’t exactly been linear, he is proud and excited to become a nurse and to continue his education at West Chester University.

Part of Idris’ story is his struggle with substance use disorder. It's part of the reason he started and stopped pursuing higher education so many times. But it’s also part of how he came to view nursing as his life’s purpose. “I'd always respected the medical community and the nursing occupation and nurses in general,” Idris said. “But I just wasn’t a science or math guy, so I let that stop me. Eventually, I realized that those subjects just required a different kind of effort. I had to work a little harder and get tutoring along the way, but I grew to genuinely enjoy and appreciate them.”

Throughout his life, Idris has interacted with nurses of all kinds during hospital visits. “I've had some bad experiences in hospitals, but that's kind of balanced with the good experiences I had as well,” Idris said. “I want to be a great nurse so I can help others and give back, especially to underserved and overlooked populations.”

This year, Idris received the Achieving the Dream scholarship and attended the 2025 Achieving the Dream Conference. “Two-year colleges from all over the country came together and presented different ideas and different topics,” Idris said. “Ultimately, [it was] about improving quality of life for students, with the emphasis of passing it on to others.”

His experience at the conference also opened his eyes to the fact that though people across our country are so different, they all want the same things. “Ultimately, we’re all the same,” Idris said. "Just trying to do better and be better and better our lives and better the lives of people around us.”

And that’s exactly what Idris hopes to do as a nurse. He said that in addition to being excited to use his education to help people, he feels prepared to do so. “I definitely feel prepared going into the health care field,” Idris said. “However, I still remain teachable, because I know there is so much for me to learn.”