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Joanne Oleksik had always felt a strong call to volunteer as a nurse somewhere in the world.

In 2018, Joanne used the savings from her job in Alaska to travel to Kenya to volunteer with the Catholic Medical Mission Board in the village of Mutomo. Practicing without some of the basic medical equipment and supplies that are taken for granted in the U.S., she worked in pediatrics, helping train local nurses with what was available.

After all, she says, “In Kenya, living simply and serving others is the given.”

Joanne was drawn to the nursing program at the University of Mary because of its Catholic identity. “The University of Mary can provide a private education that’s competitive in cost,” she says. “I feel like I got my education that prepared me for the real world as a nurse.”

Each day, Joanne re-reads a sticky note on which she’s written these words of inspiration: “Don’t be afraid. If there’s something you want to do, you just have to find it.”