My I Come From The Wizard Of Oz

The reason I’d personally like to become a funeral director is quiet a simple one. Having been in the military and being around so many people who have lost loved ones or even being deployed and seeing what happens to those of us who aren’t so lucky to return, I want to be a part of the coping the families go through. I have had a longing since I can remember to help people before I joined the service as a police officer I was a volunteer fire fighter and being able to help those who are in tough situations whether it be in a combat theater or at home in the states it feels almost as if it’s my calling.

The medical field is a career path that brings about many options and opportunities of great value. The noble idea of being a doctor tends to cloud the diligent studying and precise training that is actually required for this career. I have wanted to become a doctor since a very young age, and now that the opportunity is here for the taking, I have fully researched what it takes to succeed in this profession and various specialties of the practice. The road to a medical degree is one filled with thousands of notes, years of schooling, and many stressful nights, but the reward is one incomparable to any other. Saving people’s lives on a day-to-day basis has been one of my dreams for as long as I can remember, so the rigorous curriculum

A time in my life in which I have been successful is when I graduate from college. Even though this was my second degree I was going to receive, it was the next stepping stone to heighten my career in healthcare. It was an uneasy decision, but I was determined to achieve my Bachelor’s in Science in Healthcare Administration.

At the age of sixteen I began working in the family business doing loss mitigation. I advanced my knowledge in the mortgage industry by working at various law firms as well as mortgage companies, building a career in loss mitigation that I knew I would have regardless of my relationships or the path that college took me. While I was taking six classes a semester at UNF and working as Warden for Alpha Chi Omega, I was also working forty hours a week to support myself financially.

It seems logical that people go to college to earn a degree in the field of study they want to pursue. However, in some rare occasions this not always True. Dr. Cameron Gilbert is a case of a person who has done just that. Dr. Gilbert is currently an owner of a budding neuropsychiatric hospital system. Strangely, Dr. Gilbert’s expertise, according to his degree is in geriatric neuropsychology, yet his career has encompassed mainly management and business instead of the clinical work that his degree entails. I sat down with Dr. Gilbert to try and understand how this doctor of mental diseases found his way into the business world.

In August of 2007 I decide to further my education and attend classes at the University of Phoenix. I was in customer service as a bartender and waitress and have three children. I had my children young but knew I had the potential to improve the quality of my life and apply personal experience in my field of interest. Since personal experience was not enough, I knew I had to get the credentials to pay forward.

Time flows like a river and you find yourself not thinking the way you used to as a child. As I grew older, my dreams and goals changed as well as my mindset on how to achieve those aspirations. Mercyhurst University’s Public Health Program is the main step toward helping me achieve my career goal of becoming a Registered Health Information Technician. I’d like to define success as many achievements and accomplishments, as well as the coming of knowledge for that which was unknown to one’s self. Therefore, there should never be an ending to a success story. It was when I graduated as a medical assistant that sparked the realization to what field I was most interested in.

Beyond the immediate exposure of healthcare best practices and how to address each situation with its own urgency; it has molded me to develop the skills necessary to balance a busy schedule to meet deadlines. Keck Medicine of USC has taught me to only accept the highest standards while being forthcoming and endearing with research for any project. Entering into healthcare from a completely different career path has been nothing short of challenging. This change of career required me to refocus my efforts and abilities to become a team player within an office setting and learn a new dialect only known within the health care community. All the skills and knowledge I have obtained required a great amount of perseverance and dedication outside the workspace to become a successful employee. I have no doubt that the dedication my career has bestowed me with, can also be applied to my education and will help me succeed within the USC environment. With this is mind, I have come to the conclusion that I am prepared to commence my graduate education at USC in pursuit of a Master’s Degree.

As I walked into that small and musty room, in a dimly lit corner of an office building, I did not expect much. I was very reluctant to accept my first job as a 16-year-old in medical records at a multi-physician practice in my small hometown. Why couldn’t I have been hired at the restaurant down the street where all of my friends worked? As I began this all but glorious job scanning paperwork, filing patient records, and obtaining multiple paper cuts along the way, it turned into something very unexpected. I ended up loving the atmosphere of working in a medical practice, and I knew the medical field was something I wanted to explore further.

The medical field has a wide range of opportunities that many plan to seek. Some, and hopefully a majority, pursue this career in order to better society one healthy solution at a time; however others simply pursue it to exceed parental expectations or to sit in a higher tax bracket. Personally, my reason for pursuing this career, through St Mary’s outstanding program, is altogether unique and abnormal to say the least. Normality never made an impact on the world. I, instead, stray far from the beaten path.

As four shiny staples were secured into my forehead after my suspicion of a concussion was confirmed by a medical professional, I felt as if I had hit rock bottom rather than the sharp edge of a fireplace mantel. I was certainly apprehensive about my ability to recuperate from this fall amidst the chaos of junior year, as a I found that I was unable to neatly fit a traumatic brain injury into my color coordinated planner. Yet, I was well aware that this was far from the last unexpected setback I would face. Despite the inconvenience of this injury, it pushed me to be driven by curiosity rather than fear of error by making the inevitability of failure profoundly apparent. By acknowledging the meaningful opportunities for growth that setbacks provide, my inclination to try new things has intensified and allowed me to develop a newfound freedom to explore the realm around me. In turn, my coordination, or lack thereof, has given me a unique type of confidence that pushes me to fearlessly take risks in order to pursue my goals. For instance, I plan to enter the male dominated field of finance. The statistics that provide evidence of the sizable pay gap between men and women in this profession is just one challenge I am prepared to face beyond high

While most acquaintences my age were out partying and having a ball, I was working 12am to 8am on a dementia unit at the VA Hospital, as you may know working nights can make you extremely lazy, when all you do is sleep all day, the pay was great and that also makes you not want to start school or do something with your life, but I saw the bigger picture in a career. I saw what none of my friends have seen yet, and It felt great. Anyways back to my story, I had really enjoyed the job and helping the elderly, but sadly due to a schedule conflict I had to resign to start college. As of right now I am working as a Pharmacy Tech at CVS pharmacy, its not much but its something. Something that's gonna help me in the long run when it comes to pharmacology,

It was by accident that I became a student services professional. My undergraduate experiences started in the College of Business and ended in Family and Child Studies. After some self-evaluation and events out of my control, I decided Business was no longer what I wanted to do. The very moment that changed it all for me was shortly after my mother became a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer and I finally met one of the families she was advocating for. There was an instant connection with one of the teenage daughters. Things clicked for me once I realized she was looking up to me as a role model. I was always drawn to experiences that were holistically oriented so I spoke with my advisor to see what other avenues I could take. At that time, I was introduced to Family and Child Studies which led me to venture into a Bachelors of Science in Marriage and Family.

Looking back on my sophomore and junior years of high school, I had a very difference idea of how my life was going to turn out. I worked three days a week on my school’s radio station, WBMT, and played guitar during my free time. I was going to major in business and minor in communications and hopefully pursue some career in music production and management. From middle school until late high school, that was the way I was going to affect people, through music. While I had worked as a camp counselor, and had experience working with children, it just wasn’t a path that I thought I could turn into a career. As I grew up and had new experiences, I began to reevaluate my plans for myself.

I have taken stock of myself, considering my skills, experiences, and goals. I have looked to family and friends, some of whom are doctors, for advice. Because of this self-examination, I have decided to pursue a career in health care. The process has been difficult at times but always illuminating. Throughout it all, I have never lost confidence - the confidence that I will actively absorb all available medical knowledge, forge friendships with fellow students, and emerge from my training as a skilful and caring physician.