Never abandoning her lifelong dream of helping others, Nursing alumna Melissa Sengbusch died last Thursday after a valiant battle with leukemia. She was 19 years old.
Remembered by her friend and housemate Jessica Mailloux, a Nursing sophomore, as "someone everybody loved," those who knew Sengbusch said she used her time at Penn to the fullest.
Planning to matriculate as a freshman in the fall of 1999, she was unable to carry out her original plans because of ongoing chemotherapy treatments after the diagnosis of her disease in her senior year of high school.
Sengbusch, committed to fulfilling her dream of attending Penn's School of Nursing and obtaining her degree, entered the University in January of this year.
"She was a very focused young woman in terms of what she wanted to do," noted Debbi Yarber Clarke, the director of student services in the Nursing School.
A resident of Stouffer College House, Sengbusch's friends and neighbors said that those around her responded consistently responded positively when meeting here.
"People just bonded with her immediately," Mailloux recalled.
Yarber Clarke said she remembered Sengbusch as the epitome of strength and bravery.
"Melissa was fully engrossed in school," she noted. "She never complained or dwelled... she just wanted to be a regular college student," she added.
Sengbusch and her friends strove to make her limited time at Penn as normal as possible.
During her time at the University, she was still undergoing cancer treatments at both HUP and CHOP, sometimes spending the nights in the hospital and signing herself out in the mornings to attend classes.
But by spring vacation last year, Sengbusch's health had taken a turn for the worst. She returned to her home in Henrietta, N.Y., to spend time with her family.
Yarber Clarke said that she and other Nursing School faculty were so impressed by Sengbusch's determination and exceptional courage that when they found her health would prevent her from returning to Penn, they decided to help her realize her dream of obtaining a Penn Nursing degree, though a bit early.
In a rarely bestowed honor, Sengbusch was awarded a degree in faculty for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. This degree is awarded to a deserving student who has not completed the traditional course work, but who the Nursing School still deems worthy.
In addition, a scholarship was established in her name to be awarded to an undergraduate Nursing student each year.
"We wanted to show Melissa how much her courage meant to the school," noted Yarber Clarke.
Sengbusch and her family spent the remaining weeks of her life together, and will always have fond memories of a trip they took to the Grand Canyon, Yarber Clarke said.
"It was her whole attitude and the way she approached the challenge... she was one of those people that no one could say a bad thing about," remembered Yarber Clarke. "She was a strong, wise, beautiful person."
Sengbusch is survived by her parents, Lauren and Doug Spiker, and her three brothers, Michael, Mark and Matthew.
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