Tammi Keitsock is graduating from Neumann with a master's degree in athletic training. Her journey to get to this moment has been described as remarkable.
"We're proud of all of our students, but obviously Tammi is special," said Hubert Lee, the assistant dean for Neumann University's School of Health Professions and Biological Sciences. "We are very proud of what she has done to inspire us. What she has done to show what perseverance can do."
In May 2022, after receiving her undergraduate degree from Thomas Jefferson University, Keitsock's goal was to apply to master's programs for athletic training.
However, her plans quickly changed when she started to experience unusual symptoms.
She told Action News reporter Caroline Goggin, "I would just wake up and have a random bruise, and I wouldn't know where it was from. Then I would get tired randomly, a lot more tired than usual."
When her symptoms got worse, Keitsock, who is from Perkasie, Bucks County, went to the doctor and got bloodwork done.
"They were like, 'Yeah, your bloodwork is showing signs of leukemia. You're going to have to go to the ER.'"
During Memorial Day Weekend in 2023, Keitsock was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
She underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. After two long hospital stays - and losing her hair - she enrolled in the master's program at Neumann in the summer of 2024.
"For the most part, she did everything everyone else did at the same pace everyone else did it," Lee said.
When she relapsed in February 2025, Keitsock was forced to take classes from her hospital bed as she underwent chemotherapy.
"They set me up on Zoom. I was on the screen, and everybody was in class, but I was still part of it," she explained.
In July of 2025, after her last intravenous chemotherapy treatment, Keitsock rang the bell. That day, she felt as if she had achieved a huge milestone.
This Sunday, she will achieve another.
When asked about the perspective she has gained from this experience, Keitsock said, "It does get better -- even though everyone says that. You have to keep looking at the finish line and you can get there."
Keitsock said her goal after graduation is to become an athletic trainer for a college.
Her professors at Neumann hope she will one day return to campus to share her story of perseverance with the next generation of students.