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“Otherwise, you just sink where you are, and I refuse to do that,” Skrede said.
Skrede, 42, of Viroqua, Wis., has certainly done it. She’ll go though her first graduation ceremony today from Western Technical College’s nursing program despite an unhealthy relationship of 19 years, a divorce and years of hard work to earn her degree while raising her two boys alone.
“You can succeed as a single parent, but you better be determined,” she said. “You have to really want it.”
Skrede dropped out of high school when she was a halfcredit short of graduating in 1982 and was married a year later. Skrede had a low opinion of herself growing up, she said, and married into a relationship that reinforced that.
The marriage became physically and mentally unhealthy, Skrede said, so she decided to leave her husband.
Knowing she would need a good-paying job so her kids could have a good life and a good future, Skrede joined Western’s Supervisory Manage-ment program, where she earned a 4.0 grade-point average while working full-time at the Viroqua Middle School.
When Skrede was five classes away from earning her degree, she woke up one morning and said she had a message from God that she needed to become a nurse.
“It was something in my heart that I always wanted to do, but I didn’t think I was smart enough to do it,” she said.
Her success at Western proved otherwise, she said.
Skrede took nursing prerequisites and eventually quit working when she started the nursing program in August 2005.
Skrede’s life experience adds depth to her ability to understand others and care for them, said Pat Formanek, nursing instructor at Western.
Formanek has watched Skrede succeed in the nursing program and work well with patients in a clinical setting.
“She is sensitive to others, and she is able to see the big picture,” Formanek said.
With school behind her, Skrede has plenty to look forward to. Her sons have graduated from high school and are continuing in college, and she married her best friend last summer.
“I’m starting life over,” she said. “I married someone who treats me like a princess, I have two good boys and can get a good job now.”
KJ Lang can be reached at (608) 791-8226 or klang@lacrossetribune.com.
IF YOU G0
WHAT: Western Technical College will hold a commencement ceremony honoring 1,240 graduates from the seven area campuses
WHEN: 7 p.m. today; a reception for graduates will follow in the North Hall of the La Crosse Center
WHERE: The La Crosse Center
BY THE NUMBERS: Of the graduates, 566 will receive associate’s degrees, and 295 will receive technical diplomas. There will be 313 graduating from the Certified Nursing Assistant program, and 50 will receive other certificates. An additional 16 will graduate from the apprenticeship program in various technical fields.
KEYNOTE: The speaker will be Richard Westpfahl, dean of Western’s Industrial Technologies Division, who was recently named Distinguished Alumnus by Western’s Alumni Association.
