{"id":7661,"date":"2022-05-09T10:12:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T14:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/?p=7661"},"modified":"2022-05-09T10:12:38","modified_gmt":"2022-05-09T14:12:38","slug":"class-of-22-hsa-grad-moves-through-tragedy-to-fulfill-promise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/2022\/05\/09\/class-of-22-hsa-grad-moves-through-tragedy-to-fulfill-promise\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of ’22: HSA grad moves through tragedy to fulfill promise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LourdesTo mark the graduation of the Class of 2022, Marketing & Communications is profiling several students who were nominated by staff and faculty for their contributions to the University and their potential to make a difference after graduation.\u00a0For more information about 2022 commencement exercises, please\u00a0<\/span>click\u00a0<\/span>here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Lourdes Lewis walks across the Calihan Hall stage to receive her Health Services Administration degree in mid-May, she\u2019ll fulfill two promises.<\/p>\n

One she made to her late husband; the second she made to herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband passed away 10 years ago from cancer and when he was getting ready to pass, he made me promise that I would go after my dream and get my degree,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cSo, I did. I got my first degree in honor of him and then I felt that this one was for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis\u2019 dream started with helping people, a road that eventually led to Detroit Mercy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always wanted to be a nurse, that was my heart was to help people,\u201d she said. \u201cI was going to school for nursing and then the Michigan Institute of Urology offered me a position as a patient navigator. When I took that position, it allowed me to see the medical field in a different light, from clinical to administrative and I fell in love with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt like I could make a change and I really liked it. I got promoted to supervisor of that department and that was my driving force to come to the University.\u201d<\/p>\n

The journey has been anything but easy for Lewis, who as the youngest of six children left her native Mexico, crossing the border for United States with her siblings and mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came to the United States when I was just 4 years old,\u201d she recalled. \u201cWe were in the back of a pick-up truck with a blanket over our head. We did get legalized, obviously, and I just became an American citizen in July 2021, so I\u2019ve been a permanent resident for many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis and the majority of her family settled in Michigan, following an older brother who came to the area because of the construction boom. Lewis\u2019 mother passed away when she was 19 years old, shortly after Lewis had become a parent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a single mom with no mom or dad,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a close family, but I had to figure it out. We came from nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis, now 46 with four children, has earned everything. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years and also worked as a waitress to support her family. After she re-married, Lewis\u2019 late husband, Frank, urged her to go to school because he knew that\u2019s what she wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I met my second husband, he worked and wanted me to go to school, he knew that was my passion,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cI was able to finish school, I was going for medical assisting and during my internship, the last part of it, what\u2019s when he was diagnosed with cancer. It took me a little longer, but I was able to finish and then a month later I got the position I\u2019m in now at the Michigan Institute of Urology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got hired there, my husband got really, really sick. I took three months off and they helped me through everything. We lost everything and I moved in with my sister. It\u2019s been quite a journey, but now I feel like I have a beautiful house that I worked hard for myself, through blood, sweat and tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis felt at home in the Health Services Administration program at Detroit Mercy, in part because the professors and faculty treated her like family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I really love is that they are not just professors, they are mentors,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt\u2019s personal. I feel like Professor (Mary) Mitsch took me under her wing and she really groomed me. They\u2019re not just letting you go, they are preparing you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not just classes, you can feel the passion of what they are teaching. Professor Tasha German has been a huge impact in my career and there\u2019s been many times where I\u2019ve called, emailed or texted her, \u2018I\u2019m going on an interview, help.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cYou almost become like family to them and I think that you can\u2019t get that at another college, you can\u2019t get that intimacy, life-long relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those relationships began almost immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I took my first class with Professor Mitsch, which was last semester, she started off the class with a well-check,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cShe said, \u2018I\u2019m praying for you.\u2019 My granddaughter got really sick and we didn\u2019t know if she was going to make it. I couldn\u2019t even think, I spent most of my time in the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought of my professors praying for me, praying with me and just saying, school can wait, it will be here. That was pretty amazing, you\u2019re not going to get that anywhere. To me, that just speaks such volumes as a woman of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a non-traditional college student, Lewis also felt supported in the program. She loved the closeness and proximity of the Macomb Campus to her work and home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of younger students in class with me, but I felt more like they looked up to me,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel intimidated. It allowed me to work full-time and then go to school nearly full-time as well. It was close to home and the cost was beneficial, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another reason why the University is like family for Lewis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing is that I have a 23-year-old, Alexis, that is going to start here in the fall,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cShe\u2019s graduating with her associates and will also be getting a Health Services Administration degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Lewis achieved another life goal: She became an American citizen in 2021. It was an emotional moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is something that they say before I did my oath, they said, \u2018everyone here has a journey,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re coming into a different country, this is your journey. When we said our oath, they\u2019re like, \u2018now your journey is an American journey\u2019 and it touched my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis hopes that she has set a good example for her kids, just like her mom before her, who worked hard and raised six children all by herself in a new country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s super important to continue the legacy of my mom, being hard-working and I hope that I\u2019m passing it on to my kids,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope that they pass it on to their kids and that legacy continues to live on.\u201d<\/p>\n

With several dreams now fulfilled and a Health Services Administration degree in tow, Lewis hopes one day to be a director or executive in her field.<\/p>\n

Her journey is anything but complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy to get here and (my kids) watched the progression after my husband died, when we lost everything,\u201d she said. \u201cTo come from nothing to proving to them no matter what happens, you can persevere, you can be something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To mark the graduation of the Class of 2022, Marketing & Communications is profiling several students who were nominated by staff and faculty for their contributions to the University and their potential to make a difference after graduation.\u00a0For more information about 2022 commencement exercises, please\u00a0click\u00a0here. When Lourdes Lewis walks across …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":7663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[17,29],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2022\/05\/lourdes_lewis_blog.jpg?fit=600%2C315&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-1Zz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7664,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661\/revisions\/7664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}