Graduation at Edgewood University: A Natural at Serving Humanity
A native of Juticalpa, Honduras, Saira Ardon found an early pathway mto her career at Edgewood University.
by Jonathan Gramling
Saira Ardon, who graduated from Edgewood University last month, is a native of Julticalpa, Honduras, but has lived in the Verona area most of her life since moving there with family when she was four-years-old. The only life she remembers is in Wisconsin.
Ardon enjoyed her school life, going to Sugar Creek Elementary School and then to Badger Ridge Middle School and then Verona Area High School.
“Honestly, I liked it a lot,” Ardon said about her school experience. “The staff at the schools were very supportive of me. It was very much like Edgewood in the sense that it is predominantly white. But also that was something that I became proud of and embraced because not many have the opportunity for education. You take that opportunity wherever you can find it. They were very open and welcoming as well. I appreciated that.”
During the summer, Ardon would oftentimes attend summer camp at Edgewood. The bond began at an early age.
“By the time I entered Edgewood, I already knew about it,” Ardon said. “I had been in the buildings and everything. When I was going to Verona schools, in middle school I believe, I started going to Edgewood during the summer. It seemed much bigger then than when I came to college. I truly believe that it was God’s plan for me to go to Edgewood just because I was brought to this campus either by summer camps or my family members went there as well. I leaned a lot into Edgewood. I felt it was looking for me in a way.”
Edgewood was exactly what she was looking for in a collegiate experience.
“I chose Edgewood because it was a smaller school environment,” Ardon said. “The way I learn is I love to make connections and learn from staff and ask questions when I need to and go to office hours when I need to. And I just thought that Edgewood would be the best space for my learning and growth. Also I could have more leadership opportunities just because it’s a smaller school. And that is what I was looking for.”
And Edgewood University made it financially possible for her to attend.
“When I entered Edgewood, I was part of the Bonner Program, which was like a volunteer program they had,” Ardon said. “And I was also in Emerging Leaders. That is a scholarship that they offer. I was very privileged to be able to get that offer because not a lot of people are able to get accepted into the Emerging Leaders Program. I think that also helped a lot for me financially.
In spite of that, Ardon continued to work to support herself, at least through freshman and sophomore year.
“I worked during high school,” Ardon said. “I was 16-years-old. I worked at McDonald’s. It was my very first job. I did school and work starting my sophomore year until my senior year. During college, I worked at Olive Garden my freshman and sophomore year. I had a good experience there when I was working. I already had the scholarship, but I also needed extra money. Even though my parents are very supportive and would help me, I am a very independent person and I tend to embrace that.”
As an Emerging Leader at Edgewood, Ardon was expected to give back to the community.
“One of the places I volunteered at was Cutting Edge, which is a program for students who have disabilities,” Ardon said. “Also when I was an upperclassman, my junior and senior year, I would help freshmen with college life as they started college. I would help them with anything they needed with school and to find community at Edgewood.”
Mentoring the underclassmen was right up Ardon’s alley and led her to her her future career.
“For mentoring, I would say I worked five hours every week because I would have to keep up with my mentees,” Ardon said. “I would be assigned specific students and I would have to keep up with them, meet with them, tutor them in classes if they needed it. I would also have one-on-one meetings with our Emerging Leaders if they weren’t doing so well in school. It was one-on-one type of work. I appreciated that I got that opportunity. I had two students each semester. A lot of times, I have to be the one reaching out, especially since they were freshmen. Freshmen are exploring what college life is. And so a lot of times, I would find myself speaking to them.”
At the beginning of her junior year, Ardon was able to leave the Olive Garden and do paid work that also coincided with her career aspirations as she majored in psychology with a clinical concentration.
“Junior year, I started working at Edgewood in the Psych Department’s internship with WEAP to get one-on-one experience in the psychology field,” Ardon said. “The full name is the Wisconsin Early Autism Project. What they do is one-on-one behavioral therapy with children. It was very fulfilling. One of my end goals is to become a child psychologist. So I am glad that I was able to get that experience. I got to learn about therapy strategies and also work with children, which I love. It was a good opportunity to see if I actually wanted that. And I learned that it is very hard to do. But I also really enjoyed the reward it came with. So that’s why I knew that is what I want to do.”
Ardon also learned a little something about counseling as a resident assistant.
“I also loved being a resident assistant,” Ardon exclaimed. “I loved that experience because I got to engage with freshmen and handle crises and get that confidentiality aspect of psychology, which I appreciated. I also was part of a team where I had to engage with other students around campus. I made a lot of friends through residence life.”
Life and school work weren’t always easy.
“One of the most challenging moments was I was part of independent research,” Ardon said. “I did my own research in the psychology center. It was about trauma exposure in memory bias. Trauma influences memory recognition. That’s what I was trying to understand. But I definitely had a challenge with learning how to do research and how to correct data and to write the data out and explain it. But I think the last week when I turned in my paper, I was very proud of what we accomplished and learned through the research.”
When everything seemed to be overwhelming, support was close by.
“The most memorable moment was definitely being part of the Emerging Leaders Program just because of the staff members, especially Richard Sims,” Ardon said. “I think he gave me so much guidance during my undergrad experiences. Richard was that person who would urge me to keep going and challenge myself every time.”
With a degree in psychology under her belt, Ardon is headed to UW-Madison to earn a master’s degree, but not in the area one would expect.
“I do want to go back to school for my master’s because I want to become a therapist,” Ardon said. “But what I am going to do is start my master’s at UW-Madison this fall. And I’m going to get a master’s in social work with a concentration in mental health so that I can get clinical mental health licensing. I know it’s a really good clinical license.”
Ardon’s goal is to not only promote the mental health of the individual, but to also impact societal systems that influence that mental health.
“With my master’s in social work, there are so many ways that I can reach my end goal,” Ardon said. “But my end goal is to become a psychologist. The reason why I chose social work as my master’s is because I also want to not only be able to help people with therapy and mental health, but I also want to understand the system and how the system puts barriers in front of individuals depending on interacting, intersecting identities like race, gender and sexual orientation. I think social work is the way for me to learn that macro-level of barriers, but also be able to engage in one-on-one therapy.”
Ardon feels that it is important to experience the whole of collegiate life and to not look upon it as just an academic experience.
“I would tell freshmen to put themselves out there to challenge themselves, to be a part of the community,” Ardon said. “I know that I struggled a lot freshmen year with finding community. But just challenging myself to go out of my comfort zone put me into places that I was in my senior year. I became the commencement speaker for the Class of 2026 and I don’t think I would have had that opportunity if I hadn’t challenged myself and pushed myself out of my comfort zone.”
Thanks to her Edgewood University experience, Saira Ardon is well on her way to becoming a community-oriented therapist. It just seems like the natural thing for her to do.
