BUTLERTWP — Anna Hogg began nursing school carpooling to Butler County Community College with her daughter.

Hogg and Krysten, now 22, said the ride was rough at first but soon they started enjoying the time together.

The diversity of BC3 — groups of students just out of high school and those returning to school later in life — coupled with great faculty is what made her experience something she'd repeat.

Hogg of Prospect was surrounded by faculty, Krysten, now at Slippery Rock University, her second daughter, Kelly, her husband, David, and her parents when she graduated from BC3 Thursday night.

Two days earlier, she received her nursing pin, which she worked so hard for since 2003, and spoke before the 50 other new nurses as president of the Nursing Club.

Hogg became president of the club because she never wanted to turn down any opportunity.

She didn't turn down the opportunity to start nursing school. A former Moraine Elementary food service worker, Hogg was sitting next to a friend selling tickets for a fundraising event when she mentioned she was thinking of starting nursing school.

The friend suggested BC3, and that's where she and her daughter went. Krysten decided to study math.

As Hogg worked her way through anatomy and physiology classes, professor Diane Ratti one day walked into the nursing classroom and asked who would like to be an officer for the nursing club.

"If I'm going to do this, I'm going to be president," Hogg said.

"As a nurse, she's got a huge heart," Ratti said. "As a student, she tries very hard."

From her position of leadership, she organized a collection for Hurricane Katrina victims who relocated to Pittsburgh, furnished gift baskets to the United Way at Christmas, and bought a brick in memory of Valerie Falling, a faculty member who died the past year.

"I believe nurses should be involved in the community," she said.

Each first- or second-year nursing student is a member of the club and Hogg said everyone in the club helped in any number of ways.

Ratti, co-adviser, said Hogg showed great leadership as club president.

"She was instrumental in getting her peers involved," she said.

Sherry Neely, assistant professor, said Hogg was a productive president.

"She was a driving force in getting the club involved in the community," she said.

Hogg also was on an academic affairs committee that developed new programs, an advisory committee for the nursing program, and a student liaison.

At the same time, she fulfilled her family obligations and made it through a difficult academic program.

"She was really involved and had time to come home and make dinner," Krysten Hogg said.

She, Kelly, Hogg's parents and husband all said Thursday how proud they were of Hogg for not only going to school, but being involved while there.

Ratti, who taught Hogg in her first and final semesters, said Hogg was dependable even though she was busy.

"She's wearing lots of hats and doing them well all the time," Ratti said.

As Hogg did clinical rotations, one with Ratti in Natrona Heights, she shared her love with talking to people.

"When it come to gifts from the heart, Anna has a lot of them," Ratti said.

When it came time for Hogg to leave, she had everything ready for the succeeding president.

Most presidents are burned out by the time they finish their final semester,Neely said.

"But not Anna,"she said.

Her personality and nursing skills will make her an asset in the work force, her professors agreed.

But Hogg doesn't want to end her learning at BC3. She said she would like to spend some time in the field and then emulate her professors by enrolling in a nursing master's program.