Nora Kate Onanian, 22, achieved Emerson College graduate, journalist

In the early morning hours of Christmas Eve, we misplaced our best reward. Nora Kate Onanian, age 22, of Bridgewater handed away at dwelling surrounded by the love of her household. Despite the valiant efforts of her many groups of docs and nurses over the previous 13 years, Nora’s physique was now not in a position to maintain her. Since the age of 9, Nora has fought Ewing’s Sarcoma twice and most lately, radiation induced osteosarcoma which resulted within the lack of her left leg in April of 2023. In August of this 12 months, she had a recurrence. The extraordinarily aggressive most cancers cells had unfold all through her stomach requiring Nora to have a heroic surgical procedure to take away a number of organs.

While her physique might have been damaged, Nora’s spirit by no means was. She endured every little thing with positivity and beauty and greeted everybody with the sweetest smile. Nora was an inspiration and a mannequin of braveness. Despite all she had been by way of, Nora remained humble and type. She was at all times involved concerning the wants of others above her personal. She cared very deeply for her household and pals and for the world round her.

Nora was an exceptional scholar resulting from her by no means ending willpower and power. After graduating from Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School as a National Honor Society Member, Nora continued on to pursue her diploma in journalism at Emerson College. During her time at Emerson, Nora shined in her function as the online companies coordinator at her school radio station, WERS. In her function because the supervisor of the station’s writing workforce, she was in a position to pursue her ardour for music and live shows by interviewing artists and writing evaluations for albums, songs and reside performances. At the identical time, Nora additionally served because the managing editor of the Independent Film Magazine at Emerson. Nora believed within the energy of storytelling to amplify underrepresented voices, bridge variations and spark change. This led to her most up-to-date function as an Entertainment & News Media Fellow in Disability Belong’s National Leadership Program for the Fall of 2024. Nora attended zoom conferences and wrote many articles from her hospital mattress within the ICU at Boston Children’s Hospital as she recovered from her surgical procedure.

Nora realized self advocate early on, and in flip turned captivated with advocating for others. Whether consulting on movies on their representations of incapacity or reporting on systemic obstacles by way of human curiosity tales, Nora has performed a component in combating for a world the place these with disabilities are now not stigmatized and as an alternative are portrayed with as a lot nuance and vibrancy as exists in actual life. Nora discovered her internship to be the proper mix of her best passions: the intersection between incapacity advocacy and humanities reporting. Nora excelled in her research even beneath probably the most dire of circumstances and efficiently earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Journalism with minors in Music History and Culture and in Health and Society on December sixteenth with a 3.98 GPA. The head of Emerson’s journalism division introduced Nora with an award for “Courage, Grit and Determination in Successful Journalism Degree Completion.

Some of Nora’s different passions embody competing in adaptive swim meets as a member of Adaptive Sports New England at Simmons University, expressing her persona by way of her trendy outfits and daring earrings, creating stunning hand made-cards for these she loves highlighting her inventive capacity and fondness for puns, and naps together with her cat, Cashew. Nora additionally cherished to journey the world and discover new locations and made it a precedence throughout her previous few months to attend the Paralympics in Paris on the finish of August and to go to household in Colorado for Thanksgiving. In Nora’s personal phrases, “Spending time with prolonged household in pure familial heat and silliness” was considered one of her favourite locations to be.

Nora cherished and was cherished by her dad and mom: David and Christine Onanian; her older sister, Emma Onanian; her grandparents: Jane Onanian, John and Barbara Pupek and her late grandfather, George Onanian; aunts and uncles: John and Laura Pupek, Sarah and Russ Keith, Amy and Campbell Ilfrey; cousins: Casey, Kayla, Sophia, Sam and Ella and quite a few pals, classmates, coworkers, and naturally, her furry members of the family: Jack, Cashew and Kale.

The household is eternally grateful to the world class medical groups which have cared for Nora over time with such kindness and compassion. Through their noble efforts, Nora was in a position to reside probably the most fulfilling life potential. In lieu of flowers, donations could also be made in Nora’s title to the Jimmy Fund Clinic at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. In place of formal funeral companies, there will probably be a Celebration of Life for Nora on her birthday in April.

This local obituary is printed by way of Legacy.com and Chapman Funerals. Want a cherished one’s obituary featured on Boston.com? Submit your obituary here, or e-mail it to [email protected].