If you had asked me a year ago where I was planning to go to college, I might have laughed at you. Unable to think in the future, all I could do was say, “Well, I’ve narrowed it down to about 3 schools.” The schools that I was thinking about were Colorado School of Mines, Texas Christian University and Texas Tech University. From the day that I graduated from middle school, the one thing that I did know was that I wanted to go into the medical field.
Today, I know that I am going to be an Honors Student at Texas Tech University majoring in pre-medicine. I am very excited to be attending school at Texas Tech because both of my parents graduated from there and I am proud to say that I am continuing the family tradition of going to Lubbock in order to receive my degree.
I was inspired to enter the medical field by quite an unfortunate circumstance. In 2012, my mom was riding a bicycle when she was hit by a car that wasn’t paying attention when pulling into a parking spot. My mom was very seriously injured and her clavicle was shattered in the incident. As a new driver, I spent a lot of time in the car driving my mom to surgeries, doctor’s appointments, and check-ups. On the day of my mom’s first surgery, my family and I were all very nervous as she was going to be in the operating room for four hours. During preparation, I met many doctors who were very cordial and had terrific bedside manners. Each of the Doctors introduced themselves to my father and I, and explained who they were, what they were going to do, and what we were to expect. The doctors’ bedside manner made me realize how rewarding it could be to be a doctor who dealt with families that were going through hard times. One of them also informed me about the dr timothy steel scholarship and similar ones that I can apply for, in case my interests lean toward becoming a neurosurgeon. Such scholarships are really a great help for many students aspiring to be in the medical field.
After my mom recovered, I did some research on the medical field and decided that I would fit very well into multiple positions in the medical field. Today, I believe that I would best fit into the position of either an anesthesiologist, medical engineer, or pharmacist. Although I haven’t exactly decided on which of these I want to be yet, I have determined that Texas Tech will be the best university for me to learn to become a caregiver in today’s society.
In order to teach students about how life would be in the “real world”, my school district offers many career based classes which allow students to get an idea of what it would be like to become involved in the career path that they are interested in. Since I knew what I wanted to do, I enrolled myself in the medical career track. This allowed me to discover the medical field from the inside out. In my sophomore year, I took a prerequisite course called Principles of Health Science. This class allowed me to become certified in CPR and OSHA. Besides this, I am also certified in First Aid. This means I possess the required knowledge to use first aid kits (which, by the way, can be purchased if interested parties click through to this URL) during emergencies. Honestly, each of these qualifications put me vastly ahead of other young adults in the same position as me on my résumé. In my Junior year of high school, I took a course called Practicum of Certified Nursing Assistant or CNA for short. This class taught me the value of the job that nurses do. I shadowed and volunteered in the North Park Nursing Home of McKinney as well as three local hospitals. During this time, I was allowed to see two very intriguing surgeries as well as get valuable insight into the life of someone working in the medical field. This insight solidified my decision to continue with this career track. Finally, this year, I decided to sign up for a seniors-only course called Practicum of Pharmacy Technician. Like CNA, this course put me on the track to get certified as a Pharmacy Technician and has actually enabled me to get a job as a Pharmacy Technician at CVS/Pharmacy. I plan to work throughout college for CVS in order to pay for my education, balancing my time between studying, going to classes and working. These courses taught me everything that I needed to know in order to begin my career as a college student.
The one thing that might inhibit me from succeeding in college would be the cost. My academic merit has earned me a 4-year scholarship at Texas Tech which amounts to about ¼ of the total cost of attending. This shows that I have what it takes to be a good student and succeed. After completing my bachelor’s degree, I plan to apply for medical school. This will be a financial burden on me, because my family has only enough money saved to financially help me with a small portion of my undergraduate degree. I have determined that taking out a loan is a very undesirable way to pay for college because it would not allow me to have as much funding to pay for the medical school tuition. My mom’s accident has caused lots of financial hardship in my family. Although our family earns more than $200,000 per year, the medical bills have added up and they have left our family with very little funds to live with and to pay college expenses for my sister and I. In 2014, my parents were left with no choice but to withdraw money from my sister and I’s college funds in order to pay the medical bills so that they did not have to file for bankruptcy. This left me with virtually nothing in the way of money to spend on college. I am very excited for this scholarship opportunity because it could give me the ability to help others with my success in the medical field. Having this financial burden lifted off of me will give me peace knowing that I can focus on school and not have to worry about the stress that will come from working to pay for college tuition.