A meandering journey involving learning, issues of life and death, family and faith led Crystal Nesbit to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. During that trip, Nesbit learned what happened to a degree deferred.
“I believed God had a plan for me,” she said. “I believed I would finish my degree.”
Nesbit will graduate Saturday with a master’s in curriculum and instruction from the SIUE School of Education. She received her bachelor’s in special education from SIUE in 2004. Nesbit is a special education teacher at Belleville East High School, but she didn’t set out to become one.
More than 12 years ago, the now wife and mother of three, had her sights on an athletic training career. Nesbit attended the University of Tennessee-Martin on a softball scholarship, where she was a dual major in health/physical education and athletic training.
Nesbit was one semester shy of completing her degree when it was discovered that her then high-school-aged sister, Anna, had bone cancer. Anna had a tumor in her thigh.
Nesbit, who was raised in a tight-knit family from Millstadt, is one of seven siblings. Their mother home schooled all the children until the fifth grade. At the time of Anna’s illness, three of Nesbit’s siblings were in high school and the other three worked full time. Her parents, Ed and Debbie Godard, also worked full time.
“I was the only one who could push pause,” Nesbit said. “And so I did.”
She withdrew from school and went back to Millstadt to take care of Anna. Nesbit provided the primary care for her sister during the day. Her brothers and sisters provided supplemental care as their schedules allowed. Nesbit’s parents stayed with Anna in the hospital during her routine chemotherapy treatments.
In the beginning, doctors believed that Anna would not survive. Then the family was told that Anna’s leg would have to be amputated, and lastly that her sister would never be able to have children. Anna had a prosthesis piece implanted in her leg. She also eventually married and is now pregnant with her fourth child.
But when Anna first began to get better, Nesbit no longer had a scholarship and couldn’t afford the out-of-state tuition to return to UTM. Nesbit was also reconsidering her career field, after trying to transfer both her college hours and major. SIUE then became a good and qualitative choice, she said.
“I still needed a job, and there was an opening for an aide at Belleville East High School,” Nesbit said. “I worked with a student with Asperger’s. The student was in my husband’s (Joe Nesbit) class, and he was a special education teacher at the time.
“I fell in love with the special education aspect of the job,” she said. And eventually, Nesbit fell in love with Joe.
“The students are very forgiving and truly have the purest souls,” Nesbit said. “We all have our different callings, and special education is mine.”
In completing her newfound major at SIUE, Nesbit said she had times of difficulty. In part, she credits the mentorship of School of Education Associate Dean Victoria Scott. Scott is also department chair for Curriculum and Instruction.
The mother of six-year-old Chase, four-year-old Brendan and three-year-old Tanner, also heralds her own mother. Debbie Godard enrolled at SIUE at the age of 36, while she was raising seven children.
“She would come home and tell my dad that she was one of the oldest students in her classes and that the work was hard,” Nesbit said. “My dad always encouraged her, just like my husband encouraged me.”
Godard received a bachelor’s in elementary education from SIUE and teaches at Maplewood Elementary School in Cahokia. Other Nesbit family members who are also SIUE alumni include: her husband, Joe; her sister, Hollie; her father-in-law, Tim Nesbit; and four sisters-in-law.
“What got me through it all,” Nesbit said, “was my husband, my family and my faith.”
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provides students with a high quality, affordable education that prepares them for successful careers and lives of purpose. Built on the foundation of a broad-based liberal education, and enhanced by hands-on research and real-world experiences, the academic preparation SIUE students receive equips them to thrive in the global marketplace and make our communities better places to live. Situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi River’s rich bottomland and only a short drive from downtown St. Louis, the SIUE campus is home to a diverse student body of nearly 14,000.
Photo: Crystal Nesbit