{"id":25522,"date":"2021-05-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-commencement-speaker-living-a-legacy\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T16:46:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T21:46:01","slug":"tarleton-commencement-speaker-living-a-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-commencement-speaker-living-a-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton Commencement Speaker Living a Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Peacock\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Peacock<\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n

Monday, May 10, 2021<\/p>\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Kristen Peacock is walking in some very familiar footprints.<\/p>\n

The senior nursing major from Stephenville is following her grandmother\u2019s path into a career as a healthcare professional. A path that began at Tarleton State University.<\/p>\n

Her grandmother was in Tarleton\u2019s first graduating class of nurses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was extremely close to her. We would be together in the kitchen cooking, and she was always telling me stories about being a nurse in Hawaii, College Station, Chicago. She would tell me story after story. I was thinking, wow, she got to do all these amazing things and make such a difference in people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kristen will share wisdom from her grandmother\u2019s kitchen when she makes the commencement address at graduation exercises at 9 a.m. Friday.<\/p>\n

Her drive toward a job in service to others came from both her grandparents, who hailed from Stephenville.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandpa graduated from high school here,\u201d she said. \u201cMy grandmother, of course, studied nursing at Tarleton. They were my biggest inspirations.\u201d<\/p>\n

And they both were instrumental in helping Kristen choose a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a medic in Vietnam,\u201d she said of her grandfather. \u201cHe would tell me these great stories of his time in the Army. \u2018We had to learn how to do this and that. And since we were in the Army, they thought we were perfect to practice on each other.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Others in Kristen\u2019s family added to her motivation to become a nurse.<\/p>\n

Her brother had health issues that took the family across the country to some of the best healthcare facilities. Kristen had lots of questions, and it was the nurses who always made time to answer them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surrounded by all these amazing professionals. They always explained medication or equipment, or answered any question I had. When I got old enough, I promised my brother I\u2019d do something to help people like these nurses helped him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s healthy today, still my annoying older brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she prepares to enter a demanding field, Kristen is confident her time at Tarleton prepared her for the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned so much, and I\u2019m so comfortable with what I learned,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t brag on my professors enough. Through all of the changes with COVID, they made it their mission to continue to teach and prepare us. They made extra study guides, extra PowerPoints. They\u2019ve even done extra lectures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat wasn\u2019t just unique to the nursing program, it\u2019s been that way my whole time here. The time, the resources and the effort the whole faculty put in \u2014 they genuinely care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s preparing to leave Tarleton, but that doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s forsaking her grandmother\u2019s legacy. She\u2019s moving to Abilene for a position in the operating room at Hendrick Medical Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know when I took the job that that was one of my grandmother\u2019s first jobs after completing nursing school. It was right after she and my grandpa got married, and it was Abilene Regional Hospital at the time. She was also in the OR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although she has mapped out her immediate future, Kristen has bigger plans. She\u2019s getting married this summer, to a Marine she met as a freshman at Tarleton, and she hopes nursing is a springboard to a master\u2019s degree, after which she plans to become a nurse practitioner.<\/p>\n

First, however, comes Friday\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about persevering,\u201d she said. \u201cMy college experience has had some trials. It\u2019s about what had to happen to get me through those trials.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, the other graduates will be able to walk away feeling encouraged. Whatever life throws at you in this new chapter \u2014 new careers or grad school \u2014 you can come out of it, and you will persevere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just listen to your grandma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kristen Peacock is walking in some very familiar footprints.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The senior nursing major from Stephenville is following her grandmother’s path into a career as a healthcare professional. A path that began at Tarleton State University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[423,425,427],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-research","category-campus-community","category-science-health"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2021\/11\/image-140-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Academics & Research<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>","Science & Health<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academics & Research<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>","Science & Health<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 7 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 10, 2021","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 10, 2021 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on September 22, 2025 4:46 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Smiling woman in graduation attire holding a framed photo and decorated cap.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53827,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25522\/revisions\/53827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}