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Alumni Profiles

Kimberly Souba – Author and Thriver  

Oct 31, 2024

Photo of Kimberly Souba reading her book "From Death to New. Life: The Transformation of a Soul"

Written by Sarah Monilaws, ’26

Writing has always been a large part of Kimberly Souba’s life. She began by writing journals to help process her emotions and later found success in penning stories and publishing her own novels.

Shortly into her high school career, Souba started writing for the school’s newspaper, The Teen Trib, to stay involved with different activities. “I only played one sport so in order to hang out with my friends I would cover the stories of the games and different activities around the school,” she explained.

By the time Souba reached the end of her freshman year, she was already the editor of the school paper, a job usually reserved for juniors and seniors. Similarly, entering her junior year, she was editor of the school yearbook.

Writing developed into a natural talent for Souba. Local newspapers noticed her talent as well, writing articles about her and publishing some of her work. This earned Souba writing awards like the VFW Writing Award and the Hall Writing Scholarship. She even landed herself a position as a youth editor for a Catholic newspaper, “The Catholic Post” covering stories about the Catholic schools in her area.

After graduating from LaMoille High School, Souba enrolled at VCSU to major in elementary education. Soon, she felt her writing was “hit or miss” and she was no longer writing as frequently as she used to. Besides a few articles for a local school’s paper or a poem for a friend, she started to fall away from something that had previously brought her joy.

It wasn’t until she came back to VCSU a second time and left the classroom after 15 years of teaching, that she found her passion for writing once again. “I came back to school again, part of it is just because I love learning, but part of it was wanting to help with my writing and getting better at it.” Souba told us, “I don’t want to write the way people want me to. I want to write the way I want to write.”  With her fire burning once again, Souba got to work on publishing her first novel, “From Death to New Life, the Transformation of a Soul.”

The assembly of her novel wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t something Souba had ever set out to do. When looking through some boxes she came across some old journals from high school. Initially, she considered burning them, but a therapist suggested she re-read them after all those years. With some hesitation, she began reading through the journals and found over 300 poems and prayers. She started tearing them out, wanting to make them into a book to give her friends and family as gifts. Although Souba had this idea in mind, she wasn’t sure how she was going to accomplish this goal. She tells us, “I woke up in the middle of the night and I just had the phrase ‘From death to new life, the transformation of a soul’ and I couldn’t get that off my mind.”

After some thought and prayers, Souba decided to go through a self-publishing process and shortly after, she had her first set of published novels at her door. That Christmas, after receiving a copy of her new book, a close friend and his wife suggested selling the book. Right away, Souba denied the idea saying, “I don’t want people to know about my life” but then he said something to her she will never forget, “He said to me, if you can help one person, wouldn’t it be worth it?”

Souba took that comment to heart and decided to take the leap. She reached out to her editor, and they got to work on tweaking the book. With the help of two close friends, they ordered the book chronologically and split them into chapters, giving people an idea of where to go to when they were feeling a certain emotion. Souba recalls struggling the most with writing descriptions about each section. “I sat there for four hours and had nothing. So, I closed my computer, and while I was doing dishes, all of these scripture passages came to me that described each section. I went to go look them up and they were perfect,” said Souba. She then sent the second completed draft to the editor and in 30 days she had 150 books at her door.

The cover of “From Death to New Life, the Transformation of a Soul” has a significant meaning to the book and to Souba’s life. When looking at the cover, we see a butterfly, which is something Souba knew she wanted because of the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. The cover features a teal ribbon that represents both a cocoon and symbolizes sexual assault awareness. This is something she was and still is dealing with, becoming a thriver, not just a survivor. Thriving in her life after having experienced traumatic childhood sexual abuse. She says, “I think we all grow and change in our lives and that’s what butterflies are. That whole process has always resonated with me and red is for strength and courage, we have the strength and courage to change and become better people. Not always does that change, but sometimes it’s forced onto us because of our experiences.”

Shortly after her first novel, Souba published two children’s novels and she hopes to publish more in the future. 100% of the proceeds go to help children and families who have experienced some type of abuse. She states, “It’s my way to give back and I think my courses at VCSU will help because the more I’m learning doing the corporate communications track, the more it will help me better promote my books and get them out there.”

When asked, Souba told us; “The number one thing I want people to take away from my book is that there is always hope.” People, like Souba, who have experienced childhood sexual abuse often question themselves saying, what did I do wrong? Why did this happen to me? “I was just a kid. When reading some of the poems and prayers that are in there, my hope is that people will always know that there’s hope.” Souba tells us. “You can always change your situations. They might be forced upon you, but you can change and become the best version of yourself that you can be, whatever that looks like.”

Souba highlights how her professors have helped her become successful during school and after graduation. She specifically mentions Shannon Vanhorn, Cindy Zahn, Dave Bass, Al Olson and Lee Kruger. All of whom impacted her education at VCSU and inspired her to keep writing.

Her advice to aspiring writers interested in VCSU: “Just go for it! At VCSU you really are a person, not just a number. Professors don’t only support you when you’re in class, but even after you graduate. Even when I wasn’t taking their classes, they were still in touch, supporting me, and buying my books. If you want to have that lifelong support and network, VCSU is the place to be.”

Souba is expected to graduate in May of 2025 with a degree in communications with a corporate focus. Having graduated from VCSU in 2008 as an elementary education major with a focus in middle school, she is excited for this next chapter in her life. Souba currently resides in Geneseo, IL where she is a full-time student.