Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
49-year-old mom overcomes ‘chemo brain’ to find academic success
Rebecca Taylor was 40 years old when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2015.
She did months of chemotherapy and targeted therapies before undergoing a double mastectomy without breast reconstruction.
But all the treatment left her with a new problem: chemo brain, a cognitive deficit many chemotherapy patients live with after exposure to agents in the treatment.
Almost a decade later, the 49-year-old will graduate Monday from College of Southern Nevada with “exclusive” recognition from the Nevada System of Higher Education.
She’ll receive the 2024 Sam Lieberman Regents’ Award for Student Scholarship, a title that comes with a $5,000 stipend from NSHE for her post-csn studies.
“(The diagnosis) was a real wake-up call for me that I might not be living my true path,” Taylor said. “For me, this school piece is something that we talk about all the time, convergence of circumstances allowing this to happen logistically, but it’s the kind of big life step that I would have been afraid to take when I was younger. Having gone through cancer, what’s the worst thing that could happen?”
Taylor, who has lived in Sandy Valley with her husband and son since 2011, will graduate with an associate degree in psychology. She made the most of her time at the two-year school in being named the CSN Senator of the Year, and most outstanding student of the human behavior department.
When her son graduated from high school in 2022 and was accepted to UNR, Taylor sat down to help him fill out the annual Free Application for Federal Student Aid — otherwise known as FAFSA — form.
In the three decades since Taylor graduated from high school, she never sought a college degree. Instead, she was running multiple businesses, like her information technology startup.
Taylor had no idea how to navigate the FAFSA application, and didn’t realize the sort of financial support available to students, she said. Because she had to shut down her businesses at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, her son was able to qualify for some Pell Grants.
Taylor’s interest was piqued.
Chemo brain had been a concern for Taylor since her treatment concluded, and despite doing brain exercises and other mental games, she yearned for the new challenge of academia. She had already beaten cancer, so a two-year degree would be easy, Taylor believed.
Two years later, she has quickly gravitated toward leadership roles, which Taylor said were a natural fit for her considering all she’s done outside of campus. “I’m always working, but it’s not like in a crazy way, it’s just in a really passionate way, and I try to do things that I love,” Taylor said.
Undertaking tasks in life that have meaning or purpose to her, she explained, is important to her. So, she said, “even though I’m always busy, it doesn’t always feel like I’m working.” Jane Neitz-singleton, coordinator for student leadership at CSN, met Taylor in fall 2022 after Taylor enrolled in the college’s Student Leadership Academy, “an extracurricular class” where students can access resources to help them “develop into proactive, productive and engaging leaders both on and off campus.” Neitz-singleton said many of the activities in the fee-free course, such as taking personality tests, help students figure out the ways they lead, how they are perceived and how they can create productive teams. The academy has attracted students as young as 14 years old, and as old as 60, Neitz-singleton said. Taylor completed the program’s first tier in fall 2022 and second tier in spring 2023, then was elected in the summer to a position as student senator at CSN’S Henderson campus, said Neitz-singleton. Taylor currently is the secretary of Associated Students of the College of Southern Nevada, the college’s student government body. Neitz-singleton remembers her first meeting with Taylor, when she was part of the academy’s virtual cohort in 2022. Suddenly riddled with technological issues, Neitz-singleton was forced to communicate with students during their entire twohour meeting by typing her comments in a chat box. Taylor not only tried to help Neitz-singleton fix her audio problems, she set out to preserve the positive vibes by cheering her on, Neitz-singleton recalled.
She was the only person to consistently keep her camera on and microphone hot during these meetings, she added. “Rebecca is one of those students who (is) very upfront about the fact that she is doing college later than a lot other students, but recogniz(es) that she brings a unique life experience to the table as well as a sense of ongoing education and always wanting to be a lifelong student,” Neitz-singleton said. Next up, Taylor will go on to conquer Nevada State University, where she hopes to complete her bachelor’s in psychology. She couldn’t have done it all without CSN, Taylor said.
The college has given her so many opportunities to get involved, she said. Even though she lives roughly 60 miles away from the campuses, she noted, attending CSN has allowed her to meet a diverse group of people who make her feel like “legitimate colleagues” despite her age. Every step of the way on her journey has been “an amazing ride,” and Taylor said she’s ready to take it even further. “I am so proud of myself. I knew what I was capable of in — I call it my closed ecosystem — but to see myself step outside of my business, and excel without my structure, my business … to see me essentially rise to the top there, it just gave me the confidence that I really do have value,” Taylor said.
“I really do have something to contribute to this world; that it’s important that I’m here, and I hope that I can encourage other young people to follow their internal guidance because anything’s possible and it’s never too late.”