Posted 12:43 p.m. Monday, June 4, 2012
[caption id="attachment_1913" align="alignright" width="240" caption="UW-L graduate Steve Romenesko"]
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At one point Steve Romenesko didn’t think he would live long enough to graduate from high school. This May he graduated from college.
“I’ve been able to see every day as a gift — college, I think, is the coolest thing in the world and I get to be here and experience it,” he says.
Romenesko was sick in grade school and doctors couldn’t, at first, figure out why. He later learned his liver was not functioning properly and he would need a transplant. He was put on the waiting list.
In ninth grade he recalls sitting in class when he got the news about his new liver. His mother was waiting in the office — tears in her eyes — and he knew what it meant. He was transported to the hospital for surgery.
The transplant saved Romenesko’s life. But doctors later told him his liver wasn’t healthy and he was put on the list for a second transplant. He was on the list for two years during college, but Romenesko learned in January 2012 he was healthy and wouldn’t need it.
The UW-L senior says he probably wouldn’t be the person he is today without his transplant experience and he wouldn’t change it if he could.
“To think that I wasn't going to graduate high school, now being poised to graduate from an undergraduate career that I feel like I've taken absolutely full advantage of, and really jumped at every opportunity I've had here at UW-L, it’s absolutely amazing,” says Romenesko in an interview with News Channel 8.
Romenesko, a Spanish major, was a resident assistant for three years and an assistant to the hall director in Reuter Hall this year. Over the years, he has actively spoken to different programs on campus and classes about his transplant experience. He plans to attend graduate school at the University of St. Thomas.
“I want to work on a college campus,” he says. “I’ve fallen in love with being in this sort of environment. You get to interact with students at a phenomenal point in life and you can help them grow and develop into who they are going to be.”
Watch the News Channel 8 video
[/caption]
At one point Steve Romenesko didn’t think he would live long enough to graduate from high school. This May he graduated from college.
“I’ve been able to see every day as a gift — college, I think, is the coolest thing in the world and I get to be here and experience it,” he says.
Romenesko was sick in grade school and doctors couldn’t, at first, figure out why. He later learned his liver was not functioning properly and he would need a transplant. He was put on the waiting list.
In ninth grade he recalls sitting in class when he got the news about his new liver. His mother was waiting in the office — tears in her eyes — and he knew what it meant. He was transported to the hospital for surgery.
The transplant saved Romenesko’s life. But doctors later told him his liver wasn’t healthy and he was put on the list for a second transplant. He was on the list for two years during college, but Romenesko learned in January 2012 he was healthy and wouldn’t need it.
The UW-L senior says he probably wouldn’t be the person he is today without his transplant experience and he wouldn’t change it if he could.
“To think that I wasn't going to graduate high school, now being poised to graduate from an undergraduate career that I feel like I've taken absolutely full advantage of, and really jumped at every opportunity I've had here at UW-L, it’s absolutely amazing,” says Romenesko in an interview with News Channel 8.
Romenesko, a Spanish major, was a resident assistant for three years and an assistant to the hall director in Reuter Hall this year. Over the years, he has actively spoken to different programs on campus and classes about his transplant experience. He plans to attend graduate school at the University of St. Thomas.
“I want to work on a college campus,” he says. “I’ve fallen in love with being in this sort of environment. You get to interact with students at a phenomenal point in life and you can help them grow and develop into who they are going to be.”
Watch the News Channel 8 video