Ty'Reona Moore took the CNA certification exam the morning we spoke for this story.

By the time she sat down for this conversation, it was already done — the written portion, the skills portion, all of it. Results come by email in three to five days. She said she hoped she passed. Then she shrugged in the way someone does when they've already given it everything they have.

She is a junior at Meridian High School. She has one more year.

And she already has a grandmother's worth of story to tell.

Her great-grandmother did the CNA program before it was at Meridian — back when it ran at Egyptian High School in Tamms. She finished. Got her RN. Went into the military. Ty'Reona found out about it through family stories and through years of watching healthcare documentaries — "document stuff," she says — on her own.

Her mother tried the program too. Got as far as the hands-on patient care. Then stopped.

Ty'Reona is not stopping.

"I love taking care of people," she said. "It's something I love doing."

She has been working at Integrity Healthcare in Anna since this school year began — four to nine every evening after school, helping actual residents at a long-term care facility. The CNA program is, as she puts it, "like a college course." And the work involves everything people sometimes flinch at: bathing, changing, the full physical reality of caring for a human being who can't do it alone.

She doesn't flinch.

"If you can take care of a baby, you should know how to take care of a resident," she said. "It's like the same thing. But a little different."

She also genuinely likes the residents. "They're very funny," she said. "I like to talk to them." This is not performance. It reads as a simple, basic truth about who she is.

People at school sometimes think she's mean. She is aware of this. "I don't sugarcoat anything," she said. "Like I'm real. I stay to myself. I don't smile a lot." That's the reputation. But the person who spends her evenings making sure elderly people in a care facility are comfortable, clean, and talked to — that's also Ty'Reona Moore.

She wasn't always this settled.

She came into school tall — taller than most of the boys — with braces, and shy in the way kids get when they're still figuring out where they fit. People made it a problem. She withdrew.

Then a teacher named Mr. Blissett kept coming back to her. "He always came to me telling me, don't let them get to you," she said. "And ever since then, I've been outspoken. I ain't let nobody get to me."

That mentor moment sits at the center of her advice to her younger self: "Stand up. Talk loud. Don't be afraid to ask for help. And pick a good crowd."

She's clear-eyed about who helped her get here. Her mother, Tony Nesby. Her father, Tyree Moore. Her aunties. Her friends who told her she was going to pass the test this morning, when she couldn't believe it herself. A teacher named Lexi who helps her with reading. Ms. Jill — the CNA instructor who runs the program.

"I've got a good support team," she said. "Those are the reasons I'm here."

Her plan from here is specific: LPN coursework through Shawnee next year while still enrolled at Meridian, at no cost through the dual-credit program. Then RN somewhere — Shawnee or SIU, she hasn't decided. She wants to move away from home eventually. She's not in a rush, but she's not waiting either.

"Not all schools do that," she said of Meridian's program. "I love that Meridian does that."

She graduated from the CNA program this year. Got pinned.

Took the certification exam this morning.

And three to five days from now, an email will arrive. She already gave it everything she had. Her great-grandmother became a military RN from a smaller version of this same program in a smaller town. Her mother came close.

Ty'Reona is going all the way.