Growing up I have always been intrigued by the human body and healthcare. As an active athletic student performance and injuries were commonplace. Learning about how the body overcomes diversity and how spectacular the human body is so fascinating that I knew I wanted to go into the medical field. I am currently in a radiologic technology program to learn about x-rays and how to take good medical images. Again, it is perplexing to see how every patient is different and dealing with all sorts of pathology. No two x-rays look the same, even for the same body part. They can all resemble a similar shape or structure but they will never be duplicated. I am almost halfway through my program and the knowledge I have accrued just in a few semesters has been tremendous. I have achieved the didactic portion for the most part. Now, I am able to take x-ray images of every body part of any patient I come in contact with. My first clinical rotation that I am in has exposed me to a great deal of patients with varying illnesses and injuries. It is amazing to put what I learned in the classroom to work already. Knowing the proper placement to position my patients and equipment is all lining up and giving me the images needed to present to their physicians. I really enjoy being a part of small niche department in healthcare but having it contribute to the larger more purposeful goal. Imaging a person's broken leg will provide paramount information to the patient's other healthcare providers. A picture is worth a thousand words, so an x-ray will show patients and providers what is going on in a single image rather than explaining what the healthcare staff is thinking. Even though I am not in the field as a licensed radiologic technologist yet, as a student I feel that I am making a difference. As beforementioned, a picture can sum up what is going on much better than a doctor could in the same amount of time. Submitting the x-rays I have taken gives me a sense of purpose, and gives me pride in my work. No other healthcare department can provide so much information as medical imaging can in seconds. Imaging is so convenient and portable that it is omnipresent in all hospital settings. No matter in the operating room, emergency room, pediatric and neonatal unit or elsewhere, x-ray will be there with the answers.

Like Evan, my life has not followed a straight path. I have been a bit lost since high school searching for my career and life path. I have tried on so many different hats to see if they fit. While they all fit for a time in space, they did not last a lifetime. Originally I am from Florida, I attended school there too where I started off planning on going to physical therapy school. So to get a better sense of that field I worked in a physical therapy clinic for about a year. I enjoyed the healthcare setting but what I did not love so much was all the behind the scenes work including insurance and patient responsibility. I skirted around this field and ended up going someplace totally different. I became a tour guide on a bike in a touristy area in Alaska which was an amazing experience but was only a seasonal gig. After the season ended I decided to work at a ski resort next in Wyoming. It allowed me to meet new people and create fun ski trips for visitors and locals alike. Once again, the season finished up so I headed back to the guiding world in Alaska. This time I worked on a boat as a whale watching guide. That summer season was a blast. It was again only seasonal so I had to figure out my next adventure. I relocated to Colorado to do something else random; I worked as a mail carrier for the post office full time and as a florist and photographer part time. This was a more steady job that lasted four years. I eventually became the manager for my team of mail carriers. It was a great experience but knew I needed a new challenge. I heard about a job I had not considered previously and that was being a radiologic technologist or X-ray tech. It is in the same healthcare world that I dreamed about at first but something more niche. At the age of 28 I decided it was time to do something more worthwhile and permanent in my life. I applied and was accepted into a radiologic technology program. I had my fun exploring all the unique jobs out there but am loving learning more about the human body and taking images of all sorts of patients. Part time I am still working in a new field of course-the wedding industry. I enjoy finding my sense of purpose and taking the initiative to go back to school and earn an education that will set me up for success to take x-rays as needed. This new opportunity will hopefully last a lifetime and will be what I have been searching for the last decade.

My name is Madi and like Christina I am interested in the medical field. I initially received my undergraduate degree with the intention of going to physical therapy school. I had close friends choose to go into occupational therapy which is a crucial part of recovering and adapting to any health crisis. I love the idea of rehabilitating people back to health and getting patients back on their feet, being more independent. However, I decided to not pursue a degree in physical therapy. Instead, I entertained the idea of being a Radiology Technologist, or X-ray tech for short. It took a while for me to find this field and know that this is right for me. Like occupational therapy, taking x-rays is a small part of the healthcare process but is so important. Sometimes these fields get overlooked but without these services would be a disservice to anyone in need of answers and fixing. I love x-rays because you can see right to the source of the problem in seconds. For instance, if someone's hand is hurting taking a quick x-ray can tell if a finger is broken, a pathology is present, if it is totally fine, or otherwise. X-rays are taken so quickly and so conveniently that in my opinion provides instant clarification and is a total game changer. I feel like nothing else can give so much information in so little time. This field is where I belong. I certainly enjoy being a part of the healthcare process. Seeing that I can help with getting perfect x-ray images, provides gratification and a sense of a greater purpose. Currently, I am in my second term of an x-ray program. My internship is at a larger hospital where I see and image dozens of patients each time I am present. Having a calming and caring presence with my patients and allowing them to see what is going on inside their bodies seems to calm them down as well. A visual image makes problems seem more understandable and cut and dry. A break in someone's body is easy to accept. Seeing it on the screen takes the guesswork out of injuries. Although occupational therapists and x-ray techs are not physicians and nurses, the patient's healthcare would be incomplete without them. Being a part of a bigger process in healthcare is still admirable. The puzzle would be missing a few pieces otherwise.

Saying the past several years of my life have been unique, is an understatement. I have been nontraditional in how I have chosen to live my life in several ways. Initially, I was on a straight and narrow road. After high school, I attended a 4-year university with plans on attending graduate school. Immediately after my initial graduation from my undergrad studies, I worked in an office job for a year figuring out what my life's plan was. I could not have imagined how my world would spin and how I ended up where I am now. I lived in Florida my entire life up until a year post-graduation in 2016. I decided then and there it was time for a change. I needed a change-up in all the ways. So I went as far as I could from Florida. My lone suitcase was packed and I up and moved to Alaska. 4,000 miles away from any familiarity. My new job was not in an office but rather on the road, as a bike guide. My responsibilities included leading people on fun excursions down the mountains of Alaska, past wildlife, glaciers, and historical sites. It was an exhilarating summer, so much so that I continued on with the seasonal gigs. After Alaska, Idaho was my next destination. I worked at a ski resort for my first snowy winter. Once the ski season was complete, I once again picked up my roots and headed back to Alaska. The next job was not on a bike but rather on a boat in the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean. I was still guiding people and teaching them about Alaska, but added one huge change-whales! I showed off the whales summering in Alaska to all my guests. The summer had to end some time so after that season closed I yet again moved. This time to Colorado. I made my way back to the office, the post office that is. I became a mail carrier extraordinaire! I loved settling down for a minute in the mountains of Colorado and getting to know my route and the people I served. I stuck that out for a record 4 years. After getting my 4-year degree in mail services I decided after "graduation" to start up on something new. That required me to move, not so far though, only to the big city of Denver to pursue my next endeavor-X-ray. The prerequisites from my undergraduate degree were expiring soon so I put them to good use and got accepted into the x-ray program at my current school. Going back to school after a seven-year hiatus has been a challenge. Yet, I am only two semesters in but I am interning at a busy hospital where I am already taking images of people in the community. Finally, it seems like this is my true calling. Meeting people in the community and providing images to the patient's doctor is very rewarding and worthwhile. Even though X-rays are a small part of the healthcare process it is an important one! Once I get my degree I can practice wherever my next destination to be determined is. This time I can take my skills with me and service any community that I am in.

I can identify with Patrick Stanley and the need to return to school after a hiatus. Initially, I graduated high school and finished my bachelor's degree right after in 2016 as it was expected of me. The plan at first was to graduate with my bachelor's degree and then go on to get my doctorate in physical therapy. I applied to only two programs and I was not accepted into either. I decided to work at a physical therapy clinic in the meantime to prepare to apply again. After working in the physical therapy clinic for a year's time, I decided that the physical therapy path was not for me after all. I did not have a backup plan once I made that choice. It was time for me to venture out into a brand new field to expand my horizons. My next job description was flipped completely. I moved from Florida to Alaska to become a bike tour guide. It was a seasonal job that changed my life completely. That summer was incredible and opened up my view to endless possibilities. I moved on to a few more amazing seasonal destination jobs. I felt it was not sustainable to move every six months and find a new job, housing, everything. The hospitality world was really exciting but draining at the same time and I figured it was not what I saw myself doing for the long term. So I settled down a little bit and moved to Colorado and worked doing something very predictable-a mailman. It was a great way to learn more about the town, state, weather, etc. It provided the certainty I needed. I was able to expect what was going to occur the next day, week, month, and so on for eternity. I would sort mail, deliver mail, sort packages, deliver packages everyday to same houses forever. I predicted I would only be working for the United States Postal Service for a year or so while I figured out what I wanted my career to be for real. That turned into four years. Covid allowed me to keep working and keep a stable income which was very fortunate. It was a very safe job to stay at with the uncertainty of the pandemic. However, in the back of my mind, I was still thinking about what job was next. My husband went back to school to be a nurse during my time at the post office. I saw how much he studied, how difficult the material he was learning was, but yet how rewarding it was for him to apply his newly acquired knowledge to his clinical rotations. I was still wracking my brain on what I wanted to do, when it clicked. X-ray! I was introduced to this job by a tourist I met in Alaska in 2018. She said she loved her job, I knew I was interested in healthcare. So I looked into it some more and started making moves to start in a radiologic technology program. As of right now I finished my first semester yesterday out of five in the best radiologic technology program in Colorado with straight A's! I will be 29 years old next month. There are definitely several younger classmates in my program that I sometimes envy for starting this career path so early in their lives. But at the same time I wouldn't trade my previous experiences for anything. After I receive my degree in X-ray I hope to continue learning and go on to MRI or mammography, just to keep things interesting.

Community service is so important to any community. Providing your time to give back to members within your neighborhood can make a huge difference. No matter how small you think your effort is, it does not go unnoticed. Whether it is donating clothes/canned goods to a shelter or picking up trash on your daily walk, anything no matter how trivial, provides some positive benefit to another person in the community. I recently moved from Summit County where I was part of a nonprofit called Mountain Mentors. I was paired with a young girl who I volunteered my time to spend 8+ hours with a month with. She was going through some hardships at home, school and just at a personal level. Every time after carving out some time in my day to dedicate to her made me feel so good. Knowing that she could count on me as some part of stability in her life benefited the both of us. Within the organization, we contributed to several other non-profits and volunteering opportunities. We had regular times to serve dinner at the Elk's Lodge, we prepared meals for those in need at a church, we donated items to those in need, volunteered at animal shelters and so on. When you give back you are helping someone who is worse off than you, but the reward of doing something substantial feels just as good. It starts a chain reaction, you want to keep performing volunteer activities to feel that internal pleasure. Maybe someday the person you benefited will return the favor to their community as well. I am no longer in Summit County to stay within the Mountain Mentors program. I have moved to Arvada, less than a mile from Arvada West High School in fact. I just completed my first semester at Red Rocks Community College in the Radiologic Technology program. As I pass Arvada West on my way to class each day I am eager to learn more about my future profession. I am only a semster through my program but I have already learned so much about x-rays. I started my clinical rotation already and have performed x-rays on real patients too. It feels great to provide a visual to patients who are unsure about their condition. The hospital I am interning at now is in a rougher part of town, so having the opportunity this early in my educational training to treat the low-income residents with respect and give them a clear image to decipher their condition is important. When I am certified and on my own in a year and a half time I am determined to continue treating all members of the community no matter their status with dignity and professionalism. Having a sense of purpose has been exhilarating. Knowing that the x-ray images I take will contribute to something bigger and more important than me dozens of time every day feels surreal.

My passion in STEM is radiologic technology. I have recently been accepted into a rad tech program where I will learn how to X-ray patients. X-rays are very important in the healthcare field. They provide visuals that can not be obtained otherwise. It is extremely interesting the science behind X-rays and how useful they are. Once I graduate from this program I will use my education by providing acceptable X-rays to further analyze a patients status. I will use my clinical experience and education to use the correct techniques to capture images of the patients I will be seeing. X-rays are needed in most situations in the hospital from broken bones, collapsed lungs, to surgical procedures. I want to do my best with the knowledge I have gained to take the best and sharpest X-rays that I possibly can. The clearer the images the easier it will be for the the healthcare staff to diagnose and treat patients. If I can do my job well it will make the rest of the teams job easier. At the end the of the day if I can expedite a patients time and treatment then I know I will have done a job well done.

Growing up I was always up and moving. My family was constantly doing some kind of activity, running, playing soccer, tennis, frisbee, golf you name it. They always influenced me to get out and do something proactive and engage in something that will positively impact my mind and body. I knew that giving my body what it needed to perform optimally was important from an early age. I still enjoy recreation and living a healthy lifestyle so naturally I wanted to pursue something in the healthcare field. I have decided to pursue a career in radiologic technology. It will suit me well because I will get to see how the body is reacting to certain treatments and ailments. Providing essential images will be rewarding knowing that I am a part of a bigger plan for a patient. X-rays will be crucial for other healthcare providers to better gauge a diagnosis and initiate a treatment plan.

One piece of technology that inspires me is an X-ray machine. So much so that I am going to school to be an X-ray technician. This was such a revolutionary invention has changed the healthcare world for the better. X-rays make healthcare treatment so much faster, efficient, and effective. Without a visual X-ray healthcare providers would have to guess about their patient's condition or worse have to perform surgery to be sure. X-ray eliminates the uncertainty of health conditions in a second. This process speeds up the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment exponentially than without this technology invention. X-rays can provide the necessary information immediately which can be important not just for minimal injuries but during crucial life saving surgeries. This optimizes the patient's chances for a favorable outcome and shorter time spent in a hospital.

I am starting a program in radiologic technology. I decided to pursue this degree because I enjoy the technology aspect that will provide healthcare providers with a crucial image that will help with the treatment plan of patients. I will strive to get the perfect image on my ailing patients by adjusting the dials and settings just right to achieve a useable x-ray. Although, it may not always be easy, I will most certainly have a fair share of patients that are unable to position their body at the right angle or will not be coherent enough to do so either. I will have to problem solve and make the most of my resources to still provide an adequate image for the rest of the healthcare providers. Aside from patient obstacles, I know I will have to deal with personal obstacles as well. If and when I see an extremely tragic case that will be difficult to manage at the moment and moving onward. But I know that I will be performing an essential service that will go a long way and that will make every patient's exam good or bad worst it.

Having a healthy lifestyle is very important to me because if I'm am not taking care of my body, my body won't take care of me. Aside from exercising and eating right, I also know how important mental health is. I choose to surround myself with positive people that also encourage me and hold me accountable to live healthily as well. I know I can count on these people to make sure that I am doing what is best for me. If I go down a dark path and disregard recreation, health foods, and a positive mentality it will certainly effect my relationships of those around me. I am not only responsible for myself but also my husband and my job. I know I need to be a household contributor and if I can't maintain that responsibility my marriage could suffer. Consequently, I am currently a manager at my company and if I were to be negative constantly and take it out on my employees the company I work for would suffer. Going back to school is going to contribute to my personal health. I am going into the health field and it will serve me well to be in good health so I can treat my patient's day in and day out and set a good example. It irks me when I see a healthcare professional not taking care of themselves because they should know best from everyone, and it does not always reflect well for the patients. I want to make sure I am getting my daily dose of fruits, vegetables, and movement to set myself up for success. If I am feeling well walking into class or the hospital it will in turn hopefully inspire some of my patients to also live a healthy life moving forward.

My favorite scientific discovery is the X-ray. So much so that I am about to start my X-ray program. It was such a genius invention that has revolutionized healthcare. What is the most fascinating aspect is that the X-ray was discovered accidentally. Wilhelm Roentgen was just experimenting with the X-ray components and under the right circumstances the stars aligned and X-rays were made. X-rays allow healthcare to move more efficiently and effectively. We can get a visual of a patient's body in a second. Without this innovation our next resort would be guessing, or surgery. This extremely quick procedure eliminates the guess work for our healthcare workers. We can see immediately what is going wrong, or right within a patient to allow the diagnosis, prognosis, and further treatment to be determined seamlessly.

I have practiced living bravely and boldly since graduating college with my BS in 2016. I moved from Florida to Alaska where I had never been before and knew no one to start an exciting job as a bike tour guide. I stepped far out of my comfort zone to do something unexpected and it ended up being the best decision. I experienced so many new things outdoors, new cultures, new environments and so many new people. After working in the hospitality realm for several years I moved to Colorado where I worked in a new field as a mail carrier. I worked in wintery Colorado and challenged myself to brave the elements and work hard. That led me to my management role. Now after needing a new challenge I made the decision to go back to school after 6 years to do something entirely new. Becoming an X-ray student. I have been accepted into a program that I was courageous enough to pursue as an adult. I plan to continue to step outside my comfort zone to learn more about this healthcare field and start this new career for me.