Viterbo University nursing student Cassidy Sheehan had one less thing to worry about than most people beginning their final semester of college. Post-graduation employment in her position of choice had already been secured.

Sheehan had been offered a nursing position in the labor and delivery unit at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse upon graduating from Viterbo.

Diana Dundukova might have been born for business. As a preteen in her western Ukraine town, she recalls selling her toys and magazines to other kids in the neighborhood. Some of the money she earned from that first business venture, she suspects, was used to help pay for plane tickets when she emigrated to western Wisconsin at age 10 with her parents, Igor and Nataliya, and her older brother, Dmytro.

Zoe de Boer knows when a great opportunity presents itself. That was certainly the case when she was offered the Viterbo campus ministry graduate assistant position last summer.

Viterbo University put John Rice ’83 on the path to a career in higher education, a path that took some twists but was informed by Viterbo’s Franciscan mission. “I have always kept the mission of St. Francis in mind—that of teaching and healing,” he said.

Helen Elsbernd, FSPA ’65 faced a difficult decision in 1976. Then a chemistry professor at Viterbo, she loved teaching. That year however, she was asked to become the academic dean of the college. It was a promotion to be sure, but one that would take her out of the classroom.