My problem is I am stuck between starting my career as a RE assistant to shadow a successful agent and learn their daily processes or begin in property management to learn all aspects involved in that field.

Get a virtual assistant from Fiverr.com, they can cold call for $3-$5 per hour.

Keep breathing, see what sort of assistance is being offered to renters in your community and be willing to share that information with your new tenants as well.

Hi guys, I am currently an assistant college basketball coach diving into real estate investing. 

My tenant and family are also all there so I visit once a month and would be happy to offer you and your wife any assistance I can.  

He also opened my eyes to the importance of getting an assistant and better systems so that I could scale while I had another job.

Low income, down payment assistance, high DTI, low FICOs, you get the idea.

I’m currently in grad school (physician assistant program) which requires we don’t work, the more I research, I really think the Nebraska market could be awesome for investing.

As @Kim Lisa Taylor stated write your Federal reps it's the best way to ensure we are eligible / considered for assistance.  

If you are capable of mitigating those risks there is no reason to stay away from them.C - class neighborhoods are normally harder for first time investors because there is a lot of nuance between section 8 and assistance agencies that people do not understand.