Some jobs prepare you for anything. That’s how Julia Smith felt about working at Petty Island on the Delaware River, where she repaired machinery and loaded freight on and off a giant barge bound for Puerto Rico. At 23, she felt ready to problem-solve her way through whatever hit her. Seafaring wasn’t the long-term future Smith had in mind, though: She had always wanted to work in medicine. The first step on that path was nursing school, which she finished just a few weeks before the first coronavirus case landed in the Philadelphia region. To read the full story.