DMACC honors alumnus Margaret Liston

Margaret Liston of Ogden has been named a recipient of the 2018 DMACC Outstanding Alumni Association Award. The Outstanding Alumni Association Award is the highest honor given to DMACC alumni by the Alumni Association. This award honors and recognizes alumni who provide service to their community, county and/or fellow citizen; have had great professional or personal achievement since graduation; and continue to be involved in the life and work of DMACC.

Liston earned multiple degrees from DMACC over the course of a decade. She earned a diploma in Surgical Technology in 1982, a diploma in nursing in 1991 and an Associate Degree in Nursing in 1992. Liston has served in a variety of positions since she started at Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames in 1985.

 

Getting from here . . . to there

by KATHY PIERCE

REPORTER STAFF WRITER

Some have a career path all mapped out, but Margaret Liston just took life as it came. 

Everything just built upon itself is how she explains her life. All the unplanned circumstances along the way only propelled her forward. 

“She faced one challenge after another,” wrote the woman who nominated Liston for the prestigious DMACC Outstanding Alumni Association Award.

Her challenges began early, dropping out of high school due to a pregnancy. She would not be crossing the OHS stage with her classmates, but the determined young mother was quick to get her GED (General Education Degree) while living in Kimballton. Circumstances changed and Liston found herself moving back to her home area with a four-year-old daughter, and took a job at a nursing home.

Daycare was prorated to her salary, which Liston said was a blessing. “We were living at poverty level back then. My parents were always supportive. Dad told me ‘Honey, you need to apply for food stamps.’ I told him no, that’s not how I was raised.” But out of desperation she did apply. “It was so humiliating for me. It just didn’t seem right, so I quit.”

Liston knew at that point she needed some type of education to get ahead in life. But she always felt she wasn’t ‘smart enough’ for college. An eventual Master’s Degree from Drake University would put those thoughts to rest.

She remembers vividly going to register for the first time. Signup for classes was in the DMACC (Boone Campus) Commons. “It was so overwhelming to me. I felt isolated and started crying. A young woman came up and asked what was the matter? She helped me through the process and we became good friends.” Liston signed up as a full time student with four classes. Although she dropped two (“religion and chemistry - I was not prepared for that.”) she was on her way towards a degree. The following year she started with four classes and completed three. She was making progress. 

She would quit college, remarry and be a stay-at-home mom for a while. Her husband, she says was very supportive of her getting an education, so when Liston learned of a surgical tech program at the Ankeny campus that worked into her schedule, she signed up, and loved the program from day one. Liston’s  mother was a nurse and her sister was a surgical technician at Boone County Hospital. Both, she said were a big influence on her going into that field.

Read more in the May 23, 2018 issue of The Ogden Reporter.

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