Annaliese Walters-Kramer, “Ani” to everyone who knows her, found out she was an Illinois State Scholar the same way most of her fellow honorees did: she got called down to Mr. Matthews's office, and he told her.

She had no idea it was coming. Didn't know the program existed, really, until she was already in it.

"I didn't know about it until I was told I was in it," she says.

What makes that feel right, somehow, is this: Ani never needed the external target to stay on course. School has always come naturally to her. Grades matter to her. She took it seriously from the beginning — not because she was chasing a distinction, but because that's just who she is.

"It definitely makes me feel proud of myself," she says. "Like the work that I put into my academics throughout high school has been worth it."

That academic path has a particular shape to it. In eighth grade, Ani took freshman algebra — a deliberate move to get ahead in the math sequence. By senior year, that early investment had carried her all the way to physics and calculus, both of which she's in now. Tough classes. Worth it.

Next fall, she'll take all of it somewhere new. She's been accepted to both the University of Kentucky and Clemson, and her decision isn't fully made. She's toured Kentucky but still has Clemson ahead of her. What she knows is that she's going into nursing. She wants to be somewhere with real energy and spirit, and she's ready to go.

"I've always wanted to get out of this area," she says plainly. "I don't really have family around here, so there's nothing really keeping me here."

That honesty isn't restlessness; it's just clarity. Monmouth has been home since she was five, when her mom took a position at Monmouth College and relocated the family from Plattsburgh, New York, a small city nestled near the Adirondacks. She's grown up here. She sees what makes the place remarkable — "the diversity, for sure, and just the amount of different resources we have for people who come from different backgrounds" — and she's grateful for it. She's also ready for what's next.

Wherever she lands, she has a plan. She wants to end up in NICU nursing or pediatrics,  spaces where patients are at their smallest and most vulnerable, where presence and skill matter most. She wants to join a sorority, plug into nursing-specific clubs, and find her people in a new place.

The path to nursing started long before any of that. Ani's older brother, Owen, is four years older than her and was born prematurely. He's healthy now,  a senior at Drake University in Des Moines, studying sports media,  but growing up, the prematurity meant frequent doctors’ visits, ongoing health management, and a family that spent a lot of time in medical settings.

What Ani absorbed from those years wasn't anxiety; it was attention.

"My mom and dad always showed immense appreciation for the nurses," she says, "because they're the reason he was still alive."

That stayed with her, and as she got older, science became her strongest subject,  a separate thread that wove itself in the same direction. Then she took the CNA program through the Galesburg Area Vocational Center, and the two threads pulled tight.

"That's what really solidified that this is what I want to do," she says.

Outside the classroom, Ani has spent four years in cheer, competitive through her junior year and on the sidelines this season. It's been her main extracurricular, and it's given her a sense of what it means to show up for a team year after year.

When asked how she hopes to be remembered, her answer is direct and warm.

"Hopefully they say I was able to make an impact in the healthcare community," she says. "And that all my patients loved me."

Simple to say, but it means everything.