The teenage years were difficult ones for Saint John’s University junior-to-be Jonathon Vonbank. Several members of his family were battling various illnesses. By his own admission, it was a dark period in his life.
But he said it also made him stronger.
“I was lost for a while,” the New Prague (Minnesota) High School graduate said. “And I didn’t always make the best choices, But those experiences helped make me a lot more empathetic as a person. I’ve seen how painful it can be when a family member is going through all that, and it really made me want to do something to help alleviate that pain for others.”
That’s a big reason why Vonbank is pursuing a degree in nursing at SJU, and why he is working at an assisted living facility this summer.
He also served as a resident assistant in Boniface Hall during the 2020-21 school year, a position that proved more complicated than he imagined it would be because of the restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think empathy and the sense of serving others and being part of a community is a really fundamental piece of the experience here,” he said of SJU.
“It’s part of the foundation this place is built on.”
It’s a place Vonbank likely would have wound up at no matter what, so taken was he by the campus on his first visit.
“Coming here was kind of an impulsive decision in that it was the first college I visited and I knew immediately this was where I wanted to be,” he said. “I just loved it here. I visited a few other schools, but it was kind of a waste of time. This is where I belonged.”
He said affording the cost of his Saint John’s experience would have been a lot more difficult had it not been for scholarships. Vonbank currently receives both a President’s Scholarship and a Merrill Lynch Scholarship. In the past, he has also received the Martin and Eva Kuelbs Memorial Endowed Scholarship.
“It’s helped so much,” he said. “I can’t imagine the debt I would have had to take on were it not for the help of scholarships.”
In addition to his work at the assisted living facility, Vonbank is also working with the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District for the second-straight summer. He’s considering joining the military following his graduation two years from now and serving as a military nurse.
His long-range plan calls for attending graduate school to become a nurse anesthetist. And he said the education he is getting at SJU is helping prepare him to pursue those dreams.
“I would thank everyone that has donated (to the scholarship fund at SJU), and I would tell them they picked a great school to support,” Vonbank said.
“The community here is so strong. I know that’s what everybody says, but it’s true and it’s really what differentiates Saint John’s from other schools. When my friends from other places come up here to visit, it’s what they notice right away.
“Everyone here knows each other. Everyone is there for each other.”