DMU 2026 Testimonial: Nancy Vande Hey

0:08My name is Nancy Vande Hei, and I'm a student in the master's, program for mental health counseling here at Divine Mercy University. I am a mom of 11 children. My youngest is 11 and my oldest is almost 30. So when I began the program, it was a bit of a surprise, to myself that I would be starting a master's program after having been out of academics for about thirty years. I had been a stay at home mom most of those years, had homeschooled my children for thirteen, and had just come out of teaching part time in Catholic education. And I just did not know where the Lord was leading me. But I heard about divine mercy, through some podcasts and some other Catholic media sources. And two words kept swirling through my mind when I considered where the Lord might be leading me in my life.

1:04And those words were healing and hope. Healing and hope kept going through. And so, my husband and I prayed about it and determined I should just apply and just see if maybe this program might be a way that the Lord was asking me to help bring healing and hope to people in the world. I especially had a heart for other moms. There were some times, in our marriage and in our parenting journey where I had felt really alone, where I'd really been struggling, where I felt really down, where I felt like a failure. And I didn't know who to turn to. Many times I kept a lot inside and that wasn't so good for me. It wasn't so good for my marriage, and it certainly wasn't so good for my children. And it was through, finding a really good counselor and some good prayer support that I had found my own personal healing.

2:01And the Lord had really brought me on a journey where I was ready, and I felt like at a point in my life where I wanted to be there. Perhaps for some other moms who were going through those moments. But, I had no idea that being a part of this program and everything that I learned was not only to help prepare me for future clients I could work with, but that the Lord really had me on a continued journey of healing and help for myself. I found that through courses like the human development class, through the courses that tied in philosophy and theology, really deepening my understanding of what it means to be a human person. What does it mean to live a life of virtue? What does it mean to live out my vocational callings?

2:53All of these things really helped me to further find even deeper healing for myself and really helped restore a sense of hope, hope that I could make a difference in this world, hope that I hadn't utterly failed as a mom or as a wife, but that I was a fallen person who'd been redeemed, that God had made me good, that nothing I had ever done or not done ever changed my inherent dignity and value, and that I could help others by really seeing that in them, by accompanying them. So as the program continued, I found myself growing so much. I found, myself showing up as a better wife and a better mom. We had a lot of challenges in our family in the almost three years that I've been with Divine Mercy, including three moves, all of them to a different state.

3:55And there were times when I just didn't know that I could do it. I wanted... I wanted to just take a break or maybe it just... I thought I discerned wrong. Maybe I shouldn't be in it. But everyone who knew me from my husband and children to friends and my own mother were like, no. Don't stop. You're meant to do this. We'll help. So I'm so grateful to all of the people in my life who supported me on this journey, who didn't think I was crazy for in my 50s to do something very different, to go back to school after thirty years. I'm especially grateful to the donors of Divine Mercy University. And without those, financial supporters and without the scholarship that I received, I couldn't have done the program.

4:45I mentioned earlier that we have 11 children. We've had three marriages since I've been in the program. We've had kids in college and younger kids in Catholic education. And when we looked at the program, as much as I really wanted to be a part of Divine Mercy, I didn't know how we would make it work. So my husband just encouraged me to apply for the scholarship. And when it was awarded, we were so grateful and we have been, all along because it has made it possible for me to not only start but to complete. So going forward, I'm gonna be working with Catholic charities in the Diocese of Green Bay, and I'm really looking forward to accompanying anyone, any of the clients that come, whether they're adults, couples, perhaps adolescents, or even children who just needs someone, someone who can accompany them and see their value and their dignity and their worth, who knows the power of healing and hope, you can hold that for them and just walk with them as they move toward that in their own life.

6:00So thank you.