Kristina Chesterman, a 21-year-old Chico State senior nursing student from Livermore died Tuesday Sept. 24. She is remembered by her friends, family and mentors as a dedicated, hardworking aspiring nurse whose smile filled an entire room with happiness.
Chesterman was born Jan. 14. 1992. She graduated from Granada High School and attended Las Positas College in Livermore and then Chabot College in Hayward, according to a campus-wide email announcement. She was on track to graduate spring 2015.
Chesterman was struck on her bike in a hit-and-run accident on Sunday Sept. 22 shortly before 11 p.m. at the Big Chico Creek Bridge on Nord Avenue, police say. She spent two days in critical condition at Enloe Medical Center.
She had aspirations to work with Doctors Without Borders after graduating from Chico State’s nursing program, according to a statement released by her parents, Dave and Sandra Chesterman.
“She was pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a nurse and was on was well on her way to achieving that lifelong goal,” they wrote.
During the summer, Chesterman completed a competitive internship at Stanford University School of Medicine, something she was able to accomplish because of her diligence and commitment to nursing, said Peggy Rowberg, an adviser in the nursing department.
“She was very dedicated and very, very excited to become a nurse,” Rowberg said. “It’s been her lifelong calling.”
As a nursing student, Chesterman was invested in helping her classmates, said nursing major Ashley Pfyl, 21.
“She would go out of her way to do anything for anyone,” Pfyl said. “She was always finding ways to study with people or help people.”
A cheerful, extremely-likable person, Chesterman was incredibly caring and had huge ambitions to help people, said fellow nursing major Jessica Bugni, 21.
“She was like an angel here on this earth because she had this fine blond hair, extravagant blue eyes,” Bugni said. “She brought light to people, she had an aura about her and she just made people happy.”
Chesterman’s passion and love for nursing was apparent to everyone around her, said Pfyl.
“She was just a really great person and it’s not fair that this had to happen to her,” Pfyl said. “She was one of the nicest persons I knew and for her to only have 21 years to share her personality, ambition, drive, determination with everyone it’s just not fair.”
Being a registered organ donor, her ambitions to help people didn’t die with her, as the hospital was able to find recipients for all her donatable organs, Rowberg said.
“The person who is receiving her pancreas is a young woman has type I diabetes and by receiving her pancreas she will no longer have type I diabetes,” Rowberg said. “The fact that they were able to do that will change this person’s life completely. That just shows some of her sharing and caring spirit.”
Services for Chesterman will be held on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at Cornerstone Fellowship Church in Livermore.
Ernesto Rivera can be reached at [email protected] or @ernestorivera on Twitter.
