Surry Community College student Kyle Yanchura of Durham is the winner of a $500 scholarship from the Surry Community College Foundation due to her participation in a media preferences survey in Fall 2021.
Yanchura is currently a clinical nurse specialist in neurology and neurosurgery for Duke University Hospital where she has worked for five years. She has a master’s degree in nursing from John Hopkins University and has 23 years of experience in the medical field. She began her career as a health administrator before becoming a nurse.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she developed an interest in wine and toured several North Carolina wineries where she learned about Surry Community College’s Viticulture and Enology program. She is taking online classes in SCC’s Tasting Room Operations certificate program.
“I like to learn. All my adult life I have taken classes at community colleges near where I have lived,” Yanchura said. “Community college is affordable and offers great instruction.”
She can envision herself working at a winery when she retires from the medical field.
“I thought viticulture and enology would be a fun thing to check out. I could see myself working part-time in the field someday,” she said. “I am a lifelong learner, and I had taken classes in horticulture at another community college, so this is a neat comparison.”
Yanchura has taken classes on the following topics: Viticulture, Wine Tasting, Wine Finance and Wine Business.
She was among the hundreds of SCC students who responded to the statewide survey sponsored by the N.C. Community College System and organized by Media Prefs, a brand of Interact Communications. Her name was randomly drawn from the participants.