Local woman overcomes cancer to earn degree

Photo courtesy of Esther Ripplinger

ESTHER RIPPLINGER WORKED TOWARD HER BACHELOR’S DEGREE WHILE SHE BATTLED CANCER. She graduated with a degree in marketing from the University of Phoenix last month.

Esther Ripplinger was not your typical undergraduate student.

She is middle-aged, a mother and has owned several businesses. And while her fellow classmates were stressed out over upcoming exams, she was nervous about how her body would react to another round of chemotherapy.

Ripplinger did what most others might think impossible. Over the last two years she worked to receive a bachelor’s degree from the University of Phoenix while battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which created growths in her lymphoid making it difficult to breathe. Although her family was upset about her illness, Ripplinger says her faith kept her optimistic.

“I just never even flinched. I was so glad they figured it out. I was just thinking ‘let’s get it done.’”

Ripplinger, her husband and son have lived in Milton for almost three years. She was diagnosed with cancer in October 2006, right after she began working a second job. The family previously owned a lighting store in Salem, Ore., and after a partner bought them out, Ripplinger said the family chose to stay in the area to allow her son to finish school.

To help support her family, Ripplinger says she traveled six days per week, for about an hour, between her two jobs.  All this, while she battled her disease.

“It worked me to death,” she recalls. “But both places were very friendly and allowed me to take days off if I needed it.”

Having worked with her husband for years in the lighting business, Ripplinger decided it would be best for their future if she went back to school. She already had an associate’s degree in interior design, specializing in lighting – which is how she met her husband.

“Lighting was his dream and he’s got that covered. I just thought, ‘what can I do,’” Ripplinger said.

Eventually, she decided to hone in on her love of marketing and began to pursue an undergraduate degree in that field. Although Ripplinger will not officially receive her bachelor’s degree until this September, she participated in the traditional pomp and circumstance ceremony with 480 classmates last month in Kent.  

“I’m a phenomenal Phoenix because I can relate to the mythical bird who rose from the ashes,” Ripplinger said.

Armed with her degree, she hopes to sharpen her marketing skills at a firm or small business. Her cancer has been in remission since May 2007 and her doctors do not expect it to return.  

Ripplinger hopes to engage in the increasingly global marketplace because of her international background (her father is Swiss and her mother is Mexican). She can speak five languages, three fluently, and embraces what she refers to as her “strong entrepreneurial spirit.” She also hopes to write an autobiographical book someday because she hopes her story can inspire others to achieve their goals.

“It’s never too late to go back to school, to get a degree, and feel that satisfaction,” Ripplinger said. “It has changed my life.”

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