If you\u2019ve read this\ncolumn regularly over the past several years, you know how much I love\ncommencement weekend at Fort Hays State University. For the graduating students\nand their families, this is a time of tremendous joy, and it is an honor and a\nprivilege for me to greet each one as they cross the stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several days after our\nspring commencement weekend in May, I received a note from Mallory Fischer. For\nMallory, graduation day was a celebration ten tough years in the making. After\nyears of struggling to find her way, she decided to take control of her life.\n\u201cI made a lot of mistakes. I got kicked out of college. I was basically\nhomeless. Finally, I decided I didn\u2019t want to be mediocre anymore,\u201d said\nMallory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2014, Mallory\nenrolled at Seward Community College in Liberal, where she went on to earn two\nassociate\u2019s degrees that led to her starting a career as a certified surgical\ntechnologist. She then came to FHSU in 2019 to pursue a bachelor\u2019s degree in\nbiology with the goal of becoming a physician\u2019s assistant. At FHSU, Mallory\ndecided to pursue a minor in Chemistry and began working in the\ndepartment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four days before\ngraduation, Mallory was studying in the Memorial Union. She looked out the\nwindow and saw a group of students playing volleyball on the quad. She decided\nto take a break and join in the action. In the heat of competition, Mallory\nrecalls hearing and feeling a \u201cpop\u201d as she fell to the grass. While on the\nground and initially a bit embarrassed after her tumble, she noticed that the\nlower half of her leg-didn\u2019t look right. As the result of the fall, Mallory\nruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), suffered several micro-fractures\nin her lower leg, and strained both her posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) and\nher medial collateral ligament (MCL). In short, very little was holding her leg\ntogether below her knee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Immediately, her\nfellow students, most of whom she didn\u2019t even know, sprung to her aid. Several\nheaded for the Medical Services office in the Fischli-Wills Center for Student\nSuccess to help. They came back with a medical team and a wheelchair. While\nwaiting for the medical staff to arrive, graduate student Misael Trejo sat with\nMallory and kept her calm and alert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mallory admits that\nshe probably should have gone immediately to the Hays Medical Center, but at\nthe time insisted on going home to Dodge City to seek the attention of an\northopedist she knew well and trusted from her time working in the operating\nroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was about this\ntime, just a few days before the graduation ceremony she had looked forward to\nfor so long, that Mallory began to despair. Before she could even think about\nit and how she might be able to participate in commencement, she still had one\nmore exam she had to complete-a chemistry final. With her leg secured in a\nbrace but still suffering from significant pain from a major injury that would\nrequire an operation, Mallory made the trek back to campus to take her final. She\nrecalls three things from this last academic challenge. First, she cried most\nof the way through the exam. Second, she bombed the test. And third, her\nprofessor, Dr. Krisztina Benze, was there to remind her that she had done so\nwell in the class that failing her exam final would have no bearing on her\ngrade or her being able to graduate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relieved as she was to\ncomplete all of her academic requirements despite the injury, Mallory still\ndoubted whether she would be able to physically make it into the ceremony and\nparticipate with her graduating class as she had envisioned. That\u2019s when her\nmentors in the Chemistry Department stepped in. Dr. Benze, Dr. Arvin Cruz, and\nDr. James Balthazor were adamant. They told her she had no choice. They told\nher they all had decided that she would graduate with her class, and they would\nbe there to support her throughout the event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mallory then decided\nto reach out to the Office of the Provost to explore any accommodations the\nuniversity might make so she could participate at some level. She really wanted\nto process with her fellow graduates and walk across the stage to receive her\ndiploma, but she was ready to accept something lesser if she could still attend\nthe ceremony. Executive Administrative Specialist Cynthia Cline answered her\nphone call. She is one of our principal commencement ceremony organizers. Cline\ntold her not to worry. She would meet Mallory at Gross Memorial Coliseum on the\nmorning of the event and ensure everything would be OK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mallory arrived on graduation\nmorning, and Cynthia was there as promised. She told Mallory that her\nsignificant other could sit with her and push her wheelchair as necessary.\nWhile Mallory was waiting for the event to begin, she encountered Dr.\nBalthazor. She told him she thought she was going to her seat on the coliseum\nfloor ahead of the student procession and would probably miss joining this part\nof the event. Balthazor, slated to guide the procession as a commencement\nmarshal, told her that not only would she participate in the procession, she\nwould lead it! He then stepped behind her wheelchair, and Mallory, with the\nhelp of her friend and mentor, Dr. Balthazor, led the procession. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her email to me,\nMallory shared these thoughts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am so proud of how far I have come, and thanks to this\nincredible university, I was able to celebrate this very special day in front\nof my friends and family. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n FHSU is my happy place. I received an excellent education that\nhas prepared me for my future and simultaneously allowed me to cultivate\nrelationships I will always treasure with many brilliant professors and my\nfellow students. I will miss this campus dearly. And I will never forget the\nkindness the professors, staff, and students provided me throughout this\nexperience. You have an amazing team. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you, Mallory. I think you are right. We do have an amazing team at FHSU. I call it our \u201cethic of care,\u201d and it\u2019s a fine description of the compassionate and caring people who make this university community special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tisa Mason is president of Fort Hays State University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019ve read this column regularly over the past several years, you know how much I love commencement weekend at Fort Hays State University. For… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12323,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Mason-Tisa-040A6662.jpg?fit=750%2C1050&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65904"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65905,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65904\/revisions\/65905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}