Nursing student saves best for last at annual ceremony

McALLEN — South Texas College’s Associate Degree Nursing Program held their pinning ceremony on Dec. 10 with over 130 students and their families in attendance.

The evening was full of laughs, great moments and tears but it was the last student to arrive who really made the event unforgettable.

Libby Matthews Skariah, a Level 5 student, specifically asked to be the last student to walk in the ceremony because she had a surprise in store for her mother who was flying in from Dallas.

For over two years, Sakriah had purposefully hid the fact that she was in nursing school from her family, but it was now time to unveil the secret.

Her mother arrived at 5:45 p.m., still not knowing why she was there, while being purposefully distracted by nursing faculty, so staff could sneak Libby into the building without being detected.

Once in, the plan was in action. Libby's mother walked in and was in awe. Nursing faculty flooded the room with applause and accolades. Libby appeared behind the faculty to her mother and gave her mother a speech of how this was all a surprise for her.

She thanked her mother for being strong, an inspiration, and a prayer warrior for her during the two years she was in the nursing program.

“After getting married recently, my husband asked me what was my passion? What would I want to study if I could go back to school (and) I said my passion has always been in the medical field, and I would love to go into nursing,” Sakriah said in a written statement to faculty and her peers. “He supported me and we both decided that for the next 2.5 (years) we wouldn’t tell anyone in our family and friends that I was in nursing school because we wanted to surprise my mom. This was an absolutely difficult task because I tell my mom everything.”

Sakariah said she was inspired by her mother who herself was a nurse for 53 years, and still had the mindset of a nurse.

She earned her degree from a program that ranked 38 in the 2021 Rankings: The Best Associate’s Degree in Nursing (ADN) Programs in Texas by the Nursing Schools Almanac: https://www.nursingschoolsalmanac.com/rankings/adn/texas.

“I knew how much this degree would mean to my mom, so I pushed myself even when I thought the end was so far away,” she said. “It has been an amazing journey filled with sleepless nights, early mornings, tears, laughter, supportive faculty, and my amazing friends that I met during my time in the RN program.”

For more information about STC’s Associate Degree Nursing Program, please visit https://nah. southtexascollege.edu/adn/ index.html.

Story Courtesy South Texas College