From Nepal to the grounds of Washburn University, Anish Sah graduated on the evening of Dec. 13 in Lee Arena as a nursing and pre-med major. He was recognized for his achievements and selected as the commencement speaker for his graduating class of the Washburn School of Nursing.
“To be completely honest, I cannot believe that I am graduating … Just even the idea of graduating is kind of a really good feeling but at the same time scary, scary because of the fact that I will be done with school for the rest of my life,” Sah said.
Sah joined Washburn during the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it difficult for him to come to the United States. He started his journey at Washburn from Nepal by attending classes from 7 p.m. until 3 a.m. to accommodate the time difference.
“Since the visa was really hard to get during the COVID pandemic time and there was no flight or anything I had my own school from six in the morning till one o’clock and then I had to come back home, sleep for a bit and then do the classes for Washburn,” Sah said. “After that, I somehow was able to complete my first semester and I got all A’s so that was nice. After that, I got my visa and then I came to Washburn.”
In the beginning, it was difficult for Sah to interact with people due to the language barrier; for the most part, he spent time following the routine of going to the library, coming back home, eating, sleeping and then coming back to campus.
“… Afterward I started making some friends. Quickly I realized that it is not that bad and all of us are the same … After a while, I felt like I needed to have more interaction with different kinds of people so the best way for me [to do that] was to just [be] engaged on campus more,” Sah said.
Sah started working at the Student Health Center and then at the chemistry stockroom as a stockroom assistant. He spent most of his time working in the math tutoring center. Along with that, he started working as a peer educator for the first-year experience class and became the presidential ambassador for international students.
“Getting a chance to work in all those places gave me a good idea about different kinds of people. Working with them gave me a sense of identity and working with them also helped me a lot with my language as well as just talking to people in day-to-day life situations,” Sah said.
Sue Unruh is an adjunct instructor at the School of Nursing and teaches Pathophysiology I and II. Unruh met Sah in one of her classes in the spring of 2023 and remembers him to be soft-spoken, polite and a shy person who demonstrated exceptional skills.
“Pathophysiology is a really challenging course but he was bright and clearly motivated to succeed in mastering the content —all of my bright students are but Anish was different. More than mastering … he wanted to know more,” Unruh said. “He was inquisitive, he just wanted more and he was able to identify the uniqueness of each disease and the processes, but he consistently would want to peel that artichoke and find out why.”
Unruh mentioned Sah worked part-time at the coronary unit of Stormont Vail Health where he would occasionally call her to make certain that he understood so he could use that knowledge to formulate his care plans.
“I have been doing this for 20 years and I have taught close to 2000 students [and] I must admit I rarely remember them after the second or third level. They are a blur; young, bright, hopeful faces, but I will remember Anish Sah,” Unruh said.
Sah was able to maintain his different jobs on campus and find time to study. At first, he was determined to study pre-med but later applied to nursing school. Sah talked about his experience when he first started nursing school.
“First semester, nursing school was not easy because everything I learned was completely different compared to what I was used to,” Sah said. “But everyone in the nursing school was supportive, they helped me with everything, they never made me realize that language was a barrier for me.”
Sah got the chance to tutor Pathophysiology I students on his first level at the nursing school which usually is not allowed for the students to be teaching that class until they have been in the school for a year. It came out to be one of the most successful teaching sessions at Washburn with more than 35 students attending the sessions.
By the time Sah was in level four, he was tutoring more than three courses.
“I am graduating, which is a good thing, but at the same time I am going to miss every one of my friends, the study group that I tutored and especially Jane,” Sah said.
Jane Carpenter, whom Sah spoke about so dearly, is the dean of the School of Nursing. Sah has also served on the dean’s council for a couple of semesters as a member.
Carpenter shared one of her experiences at the event of Light the Lamp, which is where students start the nursing program. She remembered one of her colleagues, Dr. Tiffany McManis, director of Student Health, was there especially to cheer on Sah, which was a surprise to Carpenter.
“I asked her [McManis], I said, ‘Tiffany, why are you here?’ and she goes, ‘The school of student health team came to support Anish as his family’,” Carpenter said. “I just thought that was great, that they thought so much of him that they came and supported him at that event.”
With these many experiences, Sah was chosen to be the commencement speaker for the university, speaker for the nursing school ceremony as well as the International House. Sah is also the first international student to become the commencement speaker for the university.
“I am really blessed to have those responsibilities,” Sah said. “But at the same time, I feel like I should give my best so [I’m a] little bit nervous about that but really excited to see what life has to offer to me after school.”
Sah gave a special mention to Sally Shaw Matthew, a lecturer, who helped him when he was studying back in Nepal during his night classes. Matthew also helped Sah to write a letter of recommendation to submit to the embassy when he was trying to get his visa.
“When I came over here she treated me like a son. She celebrated my birthday at her house, and threw a big party for me,” Sah said. “So every once in a while I go to her place, she keeps checking on me and we celebrate the small things. [We] go out and have fun. So I feel like she has become part of my family.”
Matthew shared an intimate moment about Sah’s story of becoming a cardiac surgeon and his motivation behind it.
“I think what really struck me immediately about him was the way he cares about other people,” Matthew said. “He had talked to me all about his family and that his dad had died of a heart attack, I believe, and so his ambition is to become a cardiac surgeon and he had to go to nursing school first.”
Sah is currently planning to take pre-med classes to fulfill his ultimate goal of becoming a doctor. Despite all of this, his heart belongs to being a nurse first and a doctor second.
“Nursing school was just to get an experience but I feel like getting into nursing school is the best thing I ever did and for the rest of my life I will always want to introduce myself as a nurse first,” Sah said.
Edited by Morgan Albrecht and Jeremy Ford
