The following story was published by The State Journal-Register on May 11, 2023.
"LaNise Kirk has come to terms with the enemy.
In April 2022, Kirk, a 46-year-old mother of three from Roodhouse and a graduate student at the University of Illinois Springfield, learned that a rare form of cancer she had contracted four years earlier had returned.
This time, doctors told her it was metastatic and Stage 4.
They gave her a year or less to live.
Defying odds, Kirk will receive her master's degree in clinical mental health counseling from UIS at commencement at the Bank of Springfield Center on Saturday. In an audition competition, Kirk was chosen to give the student address, in addition to serving as the counseling and social work program's student marshal."