Tesa Nelson picked as MCC student Commencement speaker

Tesa Nelson has lived in McCook since she was about a year old. Growing up, she spent a lot of time in the Sandhills and all over Nebraska, but whenever she came back to McCook, she was home.

On May 10 she will speak about “home” when she’ll be the Commencement Speaker at McCook Community College’s graduation at 10 a.m.

Ironically, as she entered high school, she was dead set on getting out of McCook. She’d had the same friends, same routines and stayed busy with multiple sports and organizations and needed a change of pace. That’s about when she started working with Youth Change Reactions (YCR) and spent time with the McCook Community Foundation Fund. She saw their work and started understanding the motivation for supporting and promoting McCook. That was also when younger cousins moved back to McCook, and she wanted to spend more time with them and watch them grow. She saw what was right with McCook.

“Family has always been very important to me,” she said.

She decided to slow her pace and remain in McCook after high school graduation. She and twin sister Graci, enrolled at McCook Community College.

Her freshman year was an eye-opener.

“Without being involved in any teams or clubs, I had a clean slate – and went from 100 mph to 0. It was very humbling,” she said.

Tesa stepped away from sports but supported her sister who was playing softball. Soon the MCC softball team became part of her new family. In March of 2023, she met and befriended fellow freshman Denay Pelster at the MPCC Vice President’s Leadership class trip to Chicago.

“She’s my victory story from McCook, and someone who will always be a part of my life,” she said.

This past fall, Tesa became more active on campus, joined Phi Theta Kappa and was elected the group’s president. She found friends, leadership and faith.

“I was able to find myself again – in the same town that I love, with the family that I love and the community that I love,” Tesa said.

She will receive her Associate of Science degree in May and will attend the University of North Carolina-Wilmington with her best friend Denay, her twin sister and others with plans to become an elementary school teacher.

She would love to come back to McCook and teach kindergarten or first grade.