MOLINE, IL (WQAD.CNN) - There were 662 students ready to walk across one graduation stage, and no one was more ready than Gerene TeKippe.
TeKippe was born with spina bifida, a neural tube defect that left part of her spine exposed when she was born. Doctors had to close up her back, and it has led to nerve damage and paralysis.
She is a physiology major at St. Ambrose University and has been wheelchair-bound since eighth grade.
“I’ve always had the ability to walk, but the distance has gotten shorter and shorter over the years,” she said.
But no distance was too far to stop her from taking the next big steps, shocking her parents on the journey to her degree by getting up and walking across the stage.
“Surprise, I got ya!” Gerene said to her parents as they embraced after the ceremony.
Her father, John TeKippe said she has overcome the odds.
“The initial kinds of things they were telling us were so limited. Physically, intellectually, even emotionally, you name it, and we never bought into that,” he said.
Gerene’s mother agreed.
“She’s stubborn. She wants to do what she wants to do,” Sherri TeKippe said of her daughter.
John TeKippe remembers the advice he’s given his daughter: “Keep breathing. Have faith. Just do the next thing,” he said. “By profession, I’m a firefighter. I’m a fire chief in Des Moines and I can be tough whenever, but not with this.”
Gerene TeKippe took on life’s biggest lesson.
“It was kind of my way of putting into action - if you want to do something, you’ve got to figure out how to get it done,” she said,
This won’t be TeKippe’s last chance to walk in a graduation. She is going to pursue a master’s degree.
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