(CNN) Four years ago, one of the happiest days of Kira Conard's life carried a cloud of sadness.

At a high school graduation party, her friends were buzzing with excitement about their next steps. Many were going to college, but the aspiring therapist in Des Moines, Iowa, scarcely had the heart to tell them she couldn't go. Her family just couldn't afford it.

Raised by a single parent with three older sisters, "paying for all four of us was never an option," she told CNN affiliate KCCI . But then she got a call from a stranger offering a scholarship.

"I broke down into tears immediately," she said.

The man on the other end of the line told her that her dreams would be funded by an angel named Dale Schroeder.

Read More