{"id":46293,"date":"2022-05-12T12:33:40","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T18:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/?p=46293"},"modified":"2022-05-12T12:33:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T18:33:41","slug":"tarleton-commencement-speaker-battled-cancer-on-her-way-to-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-commencement-speaker-battled-cancer-on-her-way-to-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton Commencement Speaker Battled Cancer on Her Way to Degree"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"7119\"
Bryanna Scheuler<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, May 12, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Bryanna Scheuler is graduating with a master\u2019s degree in applied psychology, but before she gets her diploma at the 9 a.m. ceremony Saturday, she\u2019ll have a few things to say about perseverance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If anyone has the right to give such a speech …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diagnosed with Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma while an undergraduate (she holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology from Tarleton), she battled brutal symptoms and treatment side effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt went undiagnosed for quite a while, so by the time I was diagnosed I had lost 12 percent of my body weight,\u201d she said. \u201cI was having all sorts of crazy symptoms like blacking out driving. There were times I couldn\u2019t walk across a room. It was pretty severe. By the time I was finally diagnosed I realized the reason I couldn\u2019t breathe was because of the tumors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her speech she\u2019ll talk about dealing with cancer as a college student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith chemo brain, you forget things you wrote at the beginning of a sentence by the time you get to the end. I was taking writing-intensive courses, so I would do jumping jacks to get a little oxygen and blood to my brain, which would help me write one sentence. Then I\u2019d have a coughing fit, so it would take 15 minutes to write a single sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll give a very condensed version of feeling like giving up in a situation like that. But even if it\u2019s at the point you\u2019re crying on the floor, eventually you realize all you can do is rise. It\u2019s not how can you do this, it\u2019s how can you not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With chemotherapy behind her and feeling better, Bryanna is able to see her time at Tarleton through a clearer lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She moved to League City from Chadron, Neb., as a middle schooler and went through high school there. A first-generation college student, she came to Tarleton after being a zoology major at Texas A&M.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nebraska she had worked at animal clinics, stirring her passion for taking care of animals. It didn\u2019t take long for the emotional strain of veterinary work to change her mind about a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI quickly learned that vet school was not for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d already been admitted to A&M, though, and was kind of set on that. I was a junior before I let myself change my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With vet school in her rearview, she began searching for a psychology program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI looked up the best schools for studying psychology in Texas. The No. 1 was out of my tuition range. No. 2 was Tarleton, so I said, \u2018Let\u2019s go for it.\u2019 I moved to Tarleton and ended up falling in love with it. It was everything I had been looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her master\u2019s major has an emphasis on research, a specialty she found almost by accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBasically, it\u2019s statistics for psychology. I got into the honors program and was standing outside in the math hallway talking with a friend about my honors project and happened to mention I like math. Dr. (Thomas) Faulkenberry popped his head out of his office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Hey, you like math?\u2019 he asked. \u2018I have an idea.\u2019 So I did my honors research project with him. He pulled me along into the beauty that is statistics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Statistics tormented Bryanna in high school, but studying with Dr. Faulkenberry altered her attitude. She now teaches courses in the subject and hopes to make it her career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn high school I hated statistics with a burning passion, but Dr. Faulkenberry broke it down logically, and it just clicked. That\u2019s what I tell my students: Think about it rationally and statistics will start to make sense. It\u2019s hard to find a teacher who simplifies things rather than mystifies things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryanna\u2019s after-graduation plans are uncertain due to an unexpected chance to continue her education. She had intended to teach for a year, ideally at Tarleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen at the last minute there has been an opportunity for me to get into a PhD program, even though enrollment deadlines were last December. In some order of events I\u2019ll get a PhD and teach psychology, statistics and related courses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though she\u2019s unsure what\u2019s next, it\u2019s not a stretch to figure she\u2019ll handle whatever comes. She has plenty of experience with that already.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bryanna Scheuler is graduating with a master\u2019s degree in applied psychology, but before she gets her diploma at the 9 a.m. ceremony Saturday, she\u2019ll have a few things to say about perseverance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46296,"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":[382,423,427],"tags":[439],"class_list":["post-46293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-academics-research","category-science-health","tag-division-of-health-sciences"],"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\/2022\/05\/7120-300x199.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","Academics & Research<\/a>","Science & Health<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","Academics & Research<\/span>","Science & Health<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Division of Health Sciences<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Division of Health Sciences<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on May 12, 2022","modified":"Updated on May 12, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on May 12, 2022 12:33 pm","modified":"Updated on May 12, 2022 12:33 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Graduate in cap and gown smiling outdoors.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46293","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=46293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}