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Teresa Novakovich’s journey as an undergrad began 35 years ago. Shortly after walking
onto UAA’s campus, Novakovich married the love of her life and left school to raise
a family. In the interim years before returning to UAA, she raised five children,
ran a small family business with her husband until 2017 and unexpectedly stumbled
upon a job she realized could become a career.
As she addressed this year’s graduating class, she hoped to instill the simple wisdom
that it’s never too late. Contact Catalina Myers for more information.
Tia Hale used to think she missed an opportunity to do two things when her family
relocated to Oregon in 1997: attend UAA, where she roamed the halls as a kid during
summer camps, and work at the current Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC), which she
watched being built before her family’s move.
This August, Hale will begin a new dream job at Southcentral Foundation in inpatient
pediatrics. She has also taken a page from her father’s book and applied to join the
Commissioned Corps as a public health officer.
As the spring 2022 graduate degree hooding ceremony student speaker, Hale hopes that
her story — changing career paths, moving away, returning home, and raising two children
while pursuing a graduate degree — provides her classmates with a sense of shared
optimism about the path ahead. Contact Matt Jardin for more information.
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