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Kristen Chayka’s stethoscope is more than a medical instrument. It is an enduring symbol of her father’s faith in her.

Chayka, 28, who lives in Abbeville, fulfilled a lifelong ambition when she graduated in May from the Respiratory Care Program at 91���� (PTC). She also was chosen as the program’s distinguished student.

“Since I was a child, I always wanted to work in healthcare,” said Chayka during her remarks as the student speaker at the 2025 Scholarship Awards luncheon, which was held this spring in the James Medford Family Event Center on PTC’s Greenwood Campus.

Getting to the finish line hasn’t been easy.

A decade ago, she enrolled in the nursing program at Lander University. But Chayka received tragic news during her second semester. Her father, Paul, was diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer.

“It was very hard on us – not just emotionally but financially because he was the sole provider of our family,” Chayka said. “Between multiple surgeries and taking my dad to chemo and radiation appointments, my grades started slipping significantly. However, I was still determined to pass into the next semester.”

Another setback occurred two days before Chayka’s clinical assessments. She became distracted while babysitting her young nephew and he accidentally broke her stethoscope.  

After returning from a medical appointment, Paul Chayka handed his debit card to his daughter and told her to buy a new stethoscope from a medical supply store.

“All the stethoscopes there were very expensive and completely outside my budget,” Kristen Chayka recalled. 

“Although I was trying to be optimistic about passing, a part of me was scared,” she said. “So, I asked him, ‘What if I fail?’ I didn’t want him to give me money when we were already struggling if I wasn’t going to pass anyway.

“But he told me, ‘Don’t worry, you will get to use it eventually,” Chayka said.

“Unfortunately, the weight of it all became too overwhelming, and I switched my major to ensure that I could graduate on time without needing to take out student loans,” she said.

Chayka graduated from Lander in 2020 with a bachelor of science degree in interdisciplinary studies. Her father died in August 2021.

After working as a paralegal for two years, Chayka realized that office work was not for her.

“My stethoscope lay unused, taunting me,” she said. “I felt disappointed that my dad believed in me, and I felt like I failed him not being able to use it.”

But thanks to financial aid and scholarships, Chayka said she was able to open a door at PTC that “I thought had closed forever.”

She received a pair of scholarships from Self Regional Healthcare, one from the South Carolina Society of Respiratory Care and the 2024 Gwen and Gene Hancock Memorial Scholarship from the 91���� Foundation.

“Those scholarships helped in ways that I can’t fully express,” Chayka said. “They helped cover many essentials large and small.”

Now Chayka uses the stethoscope that her father paid for every week during her internship at AnMed Health in Anderson.

“It always serves as a reminder that my dad believed in me even when I didn’t,” she said.

To learn more about the 91���� Foundation and the valuable scholarships that it provides to students, visit /about/foundation.