UC honors graduates' perseverance

Graduation can seem lightyears away, especially when your health is at risk. Intense medical treatments and long-term hospitalization can derail even the most committed students. In the years leading up to her graduation, Natalie Beck was forced to miss many classes and accept incomplete grades due to invasive medical procedures, including eight inpatient stays in the hospital. 

Beck lives with from Crohn’s disease, and it has affected her performance throughout her academic career. Despite missing up to three weeks of class at a time, Beck knew she was capable of academic success.

“Even if I was really down at times, I tried to power through,” she says. Academic accomplishment on a traditional timeline is made increasingly difficult with the added stress of health problems, but Beck accepted her route, earning a degree in environmental studies, with minors in psychology and biology.

Beck was surprised to learn she had been nominated for a Triumph Cord. “I just thought I was a regular person graduating, and when I found out about it, it made me feel special and recognized,” she says.

Beck is a positive reminder that all accomplishments, no matter the time it took to get there, are worthy of pride. “I wanted to be an example for other people,” she says. “I still made it through. It doesn’t matter how long it took to get there.”

To other students facing challenges, Beck says, “Go with the flow and take it one day at a time.”

Sharell Moore moved to Cincinnati freshman year specifically to start her academic career here at UC. But life and circumstance interceded, and she transferred to a university in Kentucky to continue her studies.

“It took me awhile to finally realize what I want to do with my life, where I want to be, and that I want to be successful,” Moore says. “I had a lot of obstacles in my life, dealt with the ‘real world,’ and I realized that I didn’t want a job anymore, but a career.”

Moore ultimately returned to UC, and in spite of a three-hour roundtrip commute, graduated with a psychology degree from A&S. “I missed [UC] so much that I decided to finish my last year here,” she says. “I wanted to make sure I graduated a Bearcat.”

She graduated with more than her degree—Moore takes with her the goal of a career in human resources and ultimately helping people. “I’ve been at the bottom of jobs,” Moore says. “I want to look out for employees more than anything.”

For students still facing adversity of their own, Moore shares a lesson she earned on the road to graduation: “Whatever goal that you have, you have to go for it,” she says. “There have been some ups and downs, but I will tell anybody that if you’re in the position of quitting college—don’t do it because it’s stressful. Don’t do it because you think that it’s too much for you to handle. I promise you: If you put your mind to it, you will be successful.”