Anahi Ceniceros's 26-year-old sister, Vanessa, cannot walk or talk. She crawls around the first story of her family's Muscatine home, sticking close to her caregivers. Anahi thinks their presence gives Vanessa comfort even if she's never said so.
Vanessa was born with severe cerebral palsy, five years before Anahi was born. By the time Anahi had celebrated her own first birthday, the little girl had stepped into the role of caregiver.
"My friends didn't really understand what my life was like," Anahi said. "I went home right after school so my parents could work. I went to maybe two football games. No parties. I planned to get a full-time job right out of high school to help out because every penny of my parents' paychecks was going to food and rent. But I loved school so much."
Anahi remembers feeling sad as she listened to her classmates discuss their college plans. She, too, wanted to go. But there was simply no money.
"I didn't know anything about scholarships, and neither did my parents," she said. "They are immigrants who only went to school through third grade. My teachers and guidance counselors helped me. They gave me a scholarship application and encouraged me to fill it out. I did. I couldn't believe it when I won. The day I found out, I cried from happiness and relief."
Then Anahi strategized how to make it last for four years. She would get her associate degree at Muscatine Community College while living at home. Since she had already earned college credits there through Iowa's tuition-free high school training program, it would only take a semester. And then she would transfer to a four-year college to complete her bachelor's degree.
Anahi knew what she would major in. She had been born to it.
Finally Able to Follow Her Heart
Anahi's dream was to serve others. Although it began with Vanessa, it was lit with a sense of sacred purpose and meaning. Now, thanks to the generosity of people she never even met, Anahi could pursue nursing at a school that was steeped in Catholic heritage and social conscience.
St. Ambrose was perfect.
"Catholicism is very important to me. St. Ambrose felt so welcoming of my faith and spirit. It was the first reason for my choice. A high-quality nursing program was very important too."
Anahi says her St. Ambrose experience has been infused with a Catholicism that practices what it preaches, in the classroom, in campus ministry, in service opportunities.
"The teachers are great. Their doors are always open. They say, 'We are here to help you.' I feel the same way. I am here in this world to help."
Although she doesn't live on campus - Anahi lives with her family to save money and help with Vanessa - she has participated in life-changing service trips and opportunities with campus ministry. Last year's trip to Kansas City still makes her tear up.
"We were there to serve the homeless. We carried coffee and sandwiches into a wooded area where people live under old tarps. I saw what frostbite does. I saw the blackened fingers and toes. One man was just out of prison. He told me all he wanted was a second chance. I felt God there, and will die with that feeling in my heart."
Learning What's Important
Anahi is prepared to take her boards and enter the workforce as she graduates this Saturday, Dec. 16, but she's also learned more about herself and God's creation. After a childhood defined by the responsibilities and frustrations of caregiving, Anahi is grateful for its hard-won wisdom.
"I'm not sad about life, although sometimes it creeps up on you. Vanessa, my mom's arthritis, other family problems. But there will always be problems. You never know what will happen to you or someone you love. Life happens. The main thing to remember is that when you leave this world, you will take nothing with you, no cars, no money. The only thing that really matters is what you do for others."
Some people do things for other people they will never even meet. That's true of the people who donated to the community-funded scholarship that allowed Anahi to go to college. She wants to thank them for their selflessness.
"Without the scholarship, I would have gone to work in a factory to help support my family. I would have been happy to do it because I want to contribute. But I cried when I learned about the scholarship because it meant I could follow my dream."
Thanks to the scholarship, Anahi will not only help untold numbers of patients in her lifetime, she will be able to help her own family financially. She also has plans to support students like herself.
"I want to give back. I'm giving back through service now, but when I can afford to give money I will. My Nursing mentor, Professor Ann Garton, says, 'Nursing is a vocation.' I believe that. To the day I die, I hope I don't ever say the money was what was important to me, but what I did for others."