When Stacey Sjoberg, ’07, decided to enroll at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) as an undergraduate, it was because of the nursing program’s reputation. Loving the mountains and having family nearby in Denver helped sell Stacey on moving to Greeley from her home of Mandan, North Dakota. 

Phill Sjoberg, ’07, was a Greeley local, His father, Dave Sjoberg, attended high school at what was then called the Laboratory School on the Colorado State College (now UNC) campus. Phill himself would attend kindergarten all the way through high school at the very same location, fondly referred to as University High School, before attending UNC for his bachelor’s degree in Journalism. 

Stacey played on the basketball team at UNC, which allowed her to make friends on several of UNC’s other athletics teams. After her sophomore year, she stayed in Greeley over the summer to continue working as a certified nursing assistant at the Bonell Good Samaritan nursing home, but she didn’t have a place to live. A friend from the baseball team offered her his room for the summer. Stacey took him up on the offer and ended up meeting his roommate and baseball teammate, Phill. What followed is a classic Bears love story where Phill and Stacey dated for the rest of their college experience.  

After graduation, the couple moved to Rochester, Minnesota where they both started their careers at the Mayo Clinic.  

“I feel that the education, especially nursing, that I received at UNC prepared me and set me up for a great career. It’s been foundational,” said Stacey. 

Phill soon transitioned his career into the banking industry and came to specialize in home mortgages. The family stayed in Rochester for two years before moving back to Stacey’s hometown in North Dakota. Stacey’s career took her in many different directions before she had their two sons, after which she settled into nursing education. 

“Nursing is beautiful because there are so many different kinds of things you can do with a nursing degree. Especially your bachelor’s, the options are endless, really,” said Sjoberg. 

Stacey’s decision to move into nursing education was not driven by the typical triggers that motivate many career shifts. Tragedy struck the Sjobergs when Phill was diagnosed with cancer at just 29 years old. Stacey was grappling with the possibility that she would become the sole provider for her two young sons.  

Having worked in health care her entire career, Stacey was thrust into a new role as a primary caregiver. 

Phill battled a rare form of cancer for eight years, trying every possible treatment that was available to him. His determination allowed him and his family to soak up every second together while they could. After a long fight, Phill succumbed to his illness in early 2023. 

When Stacey saw in this year’s spring edition of UNC Magazine that Bishop-Lehr, the former home of University High School where Phill attended, would be demolished she was deeply saddened. To her, it felt like another piece of her late husband she was losing. Yet, as she learned more about the new initiative, her feelings began to change. 

The site of Bishop-Lehr Hall has always been identified as a space that would play an integral role in training Colorado’s future leaders. It was initially constructed in 1961 as a building where Colorado State College students would learn how to become educators through hands-on learning with actual classes of students from kindergarten through high school, including Phill and his dad, Dave. 

With endings come new beginnings, and in the case of Bishop-Lehr, with its end comes a new class of physicians who will provide quality care to Coloradans. In place of Phill’s alma mater will stand a 101,000-square-foot building that will house the university's proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine. This new facility will rise to meet our community’s growing health care needs, nurturing and training a new generation of health care professionals who will bring hope and healing to families like Phill and Stacey’s. Health care continues to be one of the most in-demand industries in Colorado and the nation, and UNC’s new college will play a crucial role in defining the education of future physicians. 

“Knowing that on the grounds where he was educated, where his family has spent all this time improving and educating themselves on that site on the UNC campus, from there, it is also going to be transforming health care and providing education to a new generation of doctors that will go on and exponentially improve the lives of people around them. It really comes full circle for me,” said Sjoberg. 

Adding to the full circle moment, there is a possibility that a Sjoberg or two, or three, may make their way back to UNC. 

Now that Stacey and Phill’s sons are old enough to begin considering where they’ll go to college, Stacey has been open about the overwhelmingly positive experience she had at UNC. Should either or both of her boys decide to enroll at UNC, it may even bring the family back to Greeley. 

“I told the boys, when they go back to school, I may go back to school. For the longest time I said that I wanted to be a doctor, so who knows? Maybe I’ll go through the College of Osteopathic Medicine at UNC and get my doctorate,” said Sjoberg. 

The legacy Phill created at UNC and throughout his life is not diminished with the demolition of Bishop-Lehr, instead it is given new life and opportunity with the construction of the College of Osteopathic Medicine. It may even create the unique opportunity for Stacey to educate and better herself on the very same grounds where Phill did for so many years of his life.