{"id":11279,"date":"2024-04-08T11:24:06","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T17:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rctc.edu\/echo\/?p=11279"},"modified":"2025-05-14T08:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T14:08:09","slug":"delanie-wanek-an-act-of-resolve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/delanie-wanek-an-act-of-resolve\/","title":{"rendered":"Delanie Wanek: An Act of Resolve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Delanie

Delanie Wanek: An Act of Resolve<\/p><\/div>\n

Recent RCTC alum Delanie Wanek knows what it\u2019s like to start over. The current Des Moines Area Community College Mortuary Science student has also been a cosmetologist for the past decade. Wanek\u2019s interest in mortuary science began when she was 17 after visiting a job fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked my mom\u2026\u2019Mom, am I a weird kid if I want to work in a funeral home?\u2019\u201d Rather than pursue mortuary science, though, she went to school for cosmetology.\u00a0 Wanek found that she enjoyed it enough to make a career of it.<\/p>\n

Ten years, one marriage, and a pandemic later, Wanek still felt a pull to mortuary science. \u201cAfter ten years, I was like, let\u2019s go try something that I think would be beneficial to me and beneficial to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always have an excuse not to do something,\u201d Wanek says, citing bills and a need for stability as her reasons not to return to school.\u00a0 \u201cWe moved here, to Minnesota, and I was like, you know what? No more. No more excuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Immediately following her husband\u2019s graduation, Wanek applied for RCTC and has had no regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people at RCTC\u2026they were all super nice! They were so helpful, and very accepting, they wanted to know you.\u201d<\/p>\n

To transfer to a mortuary science program, Wanek needed 15 more credits, which she finished at RCTC last fall.<\/p>\n

In the process, she found solace in acting. She starred in RCTC\u2019s fall production of Lions in Illyria and is once again taking center stage as the titular character in RCTC\u2019s spring production of The Curious Savage.<\/p>\n

Wanek\u2019s parting advice to those considering higher education: focus on transferring credits and attending technical schools.<\/p>\n

She also stresses the importance of finding balance within school and life.<\/p>\n

\u201cGauge what you think you can do at the time that you are now, not ten years from now, not ten years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Make sure to come see Delanie Wanek in RCTC\u2019s Theater Department production of The Curious Savage by John Patrick, running April 11, 12, 18, and 19 at 7 pm, and April 13 and 20 at 2 pm. Tickets are $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for seniors and non-RCTC students, and free for RCTC students with valid student ID.<\/p>\n

story and photo by Jessica Cormican<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent RCTC alum Delanie Wanek knows what it\u2019s like to start over. The current Des Moines Area Community College Mortuary Science student has also been a cosmetologist for the past decade. Wanek\u2019s interest in mortuary science began when she was 17 after visiting a job fair. \u201cI asked my mom\u2026\u2019Mom, am I a weird kid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1050,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[45,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-entertainment","category-majors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1050"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rctc.edu\/echo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}