Bryant ventured from his hometown of International Falls, Minn., on the U.S. and Canadian border and traveled the 400-plus miles southeast to Viterbo where he majors in engineering and plays baseball for the V-Hawks. In high school, he shared his talents with his basketball, football, and baseball teams.

Meet Hannah, a Viterbo nursing student from the small community of Berlin, in East Central Wisconsin. Her hometown is a quaint population of just over 5,500 people, so Hannah searched for a university and campus setting that created a comfortable space to learn and grow while she connected with new friends and searched for adventures and opportunities.

Mackenzie says hands-on opportunities in Nutrition and Dietetics program make it special.

Elisabeth had two things she wanted to do when she grew up. She wanted to earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) and she wanted to perform. For that, she thanks YouTube. “What 10-year-old knows they want a BFA?” she asked. “I did.”

God has a way of always surprising Melissa (Meyer) Mofikoya. A chemistry major at Viterbo, Mofikoya was convinced that she was going to be a doctor. In the fall of her senior year, she had a change of heart and decided to go to graduate school instead of medical school. At the University of North Dakota, she joined a research group focusing on environmental testing and analytical instrumentation.

Meet Katelyn Krahn, a junior from Green Bay, Wis. majoring in social work. Katelyn enjoys helping people and discovered that a career in social work was a good match for her interests and skills. She graduates in 2024.

The recent recipient of a new hip joint that makes him feel like a “rock star,” 74-year-old Fr. Conrad Targonski is still going strong as Viterbo University chaplain. A member of the Franciscan Friars of the Assumption, Iraq War veteran, and conversant speaker of four languages, Fr. Conrad was recently honored with the prestigious Iverson Freking Ecumenical Recognition Award.

Cassie is a secondary education major working as a substitute teacher in a local district while she also earns field experience teaching in middle and high school social studies courses as part of her major. “The classroom teachers have been so welcoming and helpful,” she says.

If you ask Viterbo students or alumni why they chose to study at the university, chances are they’ll mention how the campus felt like home from the first visit and they felt like part of a family. For students whose parents attended Viterbo, that sense of home and family is often even greater. Four sets of students and their alumni parents shared their Viterbo connection stories with Strides magazine.

Growing up, Rose (Steinmetz) Bingham dreamed of becoming a teacher or a nurse. The empty corncrib on her grandparents’ farm often became a pretend hospital setting, with her dolls and unenthusiastic cats as patients.