Graduate Spotlight ~ Cynthia Pfau

We recently sat down with Cynthia Pfau, a graduate of Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, to ask her about her recent success. After completing the Saint Joe Certified Nursing Assistant program in December 2024, Cynthia was accepted into the nursing program at University of Saint Francis Crown Point in January 2025!

Cynthia’s story is inspiring, tear jerking, and hope filled!

Not only did Cynthia complete the CNA program at Saint Joe, she’s also a successful graduate of the Certified Clinical Medical Assistant (CCMA) program and the Certified Phlebotomy Technician (CPT) program at Saint Joe. In the span of 6 months, Cynthia completed 3 career advancing certificate programs right here at Saint Joe. She’s now working at Autumn Trace Assisted Living and will be starting her nursing education journey in August. Even though Saint Francis offered to let her start on the spot in January, Cynthia and her husband, Matt, decided to take a brief break from higher education. A break that you’ll see is well deserved.

What you don’t see behind Cynthia’s obvious success is the struggle and the solid support that has allowed her to both rise up and grow along her way.

Prior to COVID, Cynthia was a young adult and married without a high school diploma. She was working at DeMotte Elementary at the time as a classroom aide when the world shut down during Spring Break of 2020. It was at that time that she decided to do something about that diploma and set out to become a graduate. Through an online program, Cynthia was able to quickly qualify for and graduate with her high school diploma at age of 32. It was a moment of celebration for her and husband, Matt! But it would be a short-lived celebration.

As she completed her online coursework for her diploma, Cynthia found out she was expecting. Cynthia shared, “I found out I was pregnant, and I was like, ‘Oh, I think it's okay. I'll just finish my classes online and just be a stay-at-home mom.’” But, soon, things changed as she continued her story, “...as a woman, we know our body, and I just knew that the pregnancy wasn't going to be successful.” Even with all of the encouragement and support of her husband, doctors, and friends, Cynthia was right. “So, I was miscarrying for about two weeks and got my high school diploma on February 6th while I was still miscarrying.”

“If I really wanted to, I could have completely just stopped and given up on life. That was definitely one of the roughest and very darkest times of my life.”

During this season of reconciling loss and walking through hard emotions, Cynthia sought out guidance from her “second mom,” Crystal VanNieulande, owner and founder at Cup of Joy. Crystal shared with us that “a lot of people might think that this is just a coffee shop, but it's not. I feel like it's a place of love, healing, just everything. Even when some of our customers are having a bad day, a simple, how are you, you know, how are you…,” Cynthia and Crystal’s impact on not only one another but on their community was becoming clearer.

Cynthia and Crystal processed often about the pain of loss and the ability to overcome. It was this time of healing in a small town coffee shop and cafe that gave Cynthia back her desire to drive forward into her future.

Not long after graduating with her diploma, Cynthia sought out other educational opportunities. She found herself attending the CCMA and CPT courses as a dual enrolled student at Saint Joe while working at Cup of Joy in DeMotte with Crystal. At the time, Cynthia was the only dual enrolled student in both the CCMA and CPT programs. She started a trend here at Saint Joe as more and more students have taken her lead to become dual enrolled themselves.

Crystal says of Cynthia, “Once she decided, she was on it!” Cynthia’s desire to both improve herself and positively impact others was evident both at Saint Joe and at Cup of Joy.

Cynthia had to choose to overcome brokenness and pain but she uses her experience to both encourage herself and others. Her desire is to give back and to let her story be one that nudges other women to overcome tragedy and obstacles in order to succeed. Cynthia said to us, “Since losing the baby, I've tried to become a better person and not hold a grudge for anything because you're not promised tomorrow. I try to give as much love as I can.”

As we closed out our interview, Cynthia shared with us the reason why she chose to go into the medical field. With her permission, we’re going to share her comments directly from our interview transcript in hopes that all of our readers will identify with Cynthia’s story. Someone, at some point, has come alongside you to support you and it has impacted your life. Cynthia is using that impact to turn and impact others. Will you?

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Why medical?

When I had an appointment, I was sitting in that waiting room with a bunch of pregnant women. And I'm like, I don't really want to be here right now.

Just everything came back to me. I had to be there every two days to get my blood drawn. And my numbers were going up, going. Then they just started dropping.

But, yeah, going into my follow-up appointment, the nurse that called me back, she didn't work in the OBGYN section. She worked in the pediatric side. And she was taking my blood pressure in the room. And I could tell she was nervous, and I was a crying wreck, so I think that probably made her even more nervous. And she told me, she was like, oh, I'm so sorry. She said, I'm not usually on this side. I'm on the pediatric side, but they had a call-off today, so they switched me over here. And I was like, oh, that's fine.

And then she saw that I was upset and asked if I was okay, and I told her what was going on. And she said, you know, she said, I've been in your shoes before. It's happened to me three times, so I understand where you're going.

That right there. I felt very alone for a long time. And when she said that, I didn't know what to say, because I'm like, wow, somebody knows what I'm going through. And she asked if she could give me a hug. That, yeah, that just meant a lot to me.

And after I walked out of my appointment, I kept telling myself, I want to be her one day, because not a lot of women talk about having a miscarriage, which is very common, but just nobody talks about it.

And I just want women to know that it's okay, and we all go through that. Not everyone, but some of us do, and it's okay to lean on someone else. I just want to be there for whoever.

And, yeah, that day, she was the one that showed me, like, okay, I want to be her one day, and I want to go into the medical field, which I would have never thought I'd go into the medical field ever. Because of her, I'm here today.

For the opportunity to change your life and discover your passion, visit saintjoe.edu to explore our educational programs in health science and other in-demand fields.

Picture: Cynthia Pfau (left) and Crystal VanNieulande (right) share their story with Saint Joseph's College at Cup of Joy