Centralight

15 centralight spring '15 Tristen (Case) Smith In 2003, Tristen (Case) Smith was busy planning her dream wedding and heading off to physician assistant graduate school at Virginia's Shenandoah University. She married her fiancé, Alex, and completed grad school but was derailed for six years by debilitating chronic pancreatitis. She's endured multiple surgeries, including the removal of her inflamed pancreas and spleen, leaving her diabetic. Despite her health struggles, Smith works today as a physician assistant and clinic manager in the wound centers at northern Virginia's Inova Mount Vernon Hospital. She helps patients with their nonhealing surgical wounds and treats people with carbon monoxide poisoning. Tristen says her own challenges have helped her become a better PA. "I understand pain and what it does to a person," she says. "Now that I'm a diabetic, I can relate to my patients in a different way. I didn't realize how difficult it was." Working with patients with nonhealing wounds can be a months-long and even years-long process that is not for the faint of heart. "We're all kind of weird people," she explains of her coworkers. When a patient reaches recovery, Smith says there's a little bell they get to ring to signal that they're healed. Smith's bells have been ringing a lot lately. Her husband, Alex, and her baby daughter, born last July, have been bright spots in a tough journey. "My husband kept telling me we'd have faith that everything would work out," she says. "That's why we named her Faith." > Centralight wrapped up a yearlong project following four CMU graduates through the first months in their very real new worlds. After their December 2003 graduation, Centralight randomly selected Dara Anchors of Lowell, Jim Bowering of Clawson, Isaiah Oliver of Flint and Tristen Case of Flushing to be profiled. We found them busily navigating unfamiliar terrain – trying to land that first job, assemble a social life, find a place to live and begin to make their mark on the world. "Thinking about graduation is both exciting and frightening," Bowering wrote two weeks before he was handed his degree in education. "The job market is so bad right now that I feel unsure of when I may get a job." By 2003, 11 percent fewer new grads found jobs than in the previous five years. Student debt was starting to become a real thing: 60 percent of Central grads owed an average of $16,000. More than half of new graduates nationwide planned to move back home with Mom and Dad for fiscal security. Yet as we checked in on our alumni, we discovered they all overcame challenges and embarked on rewarding journeys with careers and families and a commitment to bettering their communities. "My husband kept telling me we'd have faith that everything would work out." Ten years ago,

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