Why did you choose to attend Carroll University?
I chose to attend Carroll for two reason. One was because it was one of the only few colleges in Wisconsin that offered a bachelor's in health science sonography. Secondly, when I called Carroll about their success rate of students who had previously applied into the sonography program and had gotten in I was told around 97% versus other schools were in the low 70%.
What made you choose your academic major or area of study?
Why I chose my area of study was through a lot of job shadowing, my college courses, and where my strength in skills were. Untraditionally, I did not finish college after high school. I had taken a break to work to figure out what kind of career I did want to pursue. One thing I did know for sure was I wanted it to be in the medical field. During that break I did various types of jobs between call center work to quality work. Overtime I was able to interpret what kind of job I did want to work in the medical field, which was becoming a sonographer. I did over fifteen hours of job shadowing in that job area, and took anatomy & physiology courses that helped steer me in the direction of wanting to work in the cardiology field as a cardio sonographer.
How has what you’ve learned prepared you for your future?
Carroll does a really job with their science based questions and the credit really goes to the professors for this. Every professor I've encountered has broken down subjects so that students can grasp the content that they're trying to teach us. The coursework and professors at Carroll have really set a foundation of information and knowledge that has helped set a base of what to expect in my program and in future classes.
What opportunities have you had to work closely with a faculty member and what impact has that had on your education?
Any of my sciences courses that had a lab were the most opportunistic places I could work closely with a faculty member. Mostly I think it's because with these classes, it's hands on and less lecturing. But in the lab classes I'm able to take the information from the lecture portions of the course into lab and apply it in real time and each lab faculty member I have spoken to has broken down information to help me understand what I am reading. Most of the faulty in lab that I have worked with have a second job outside of Carroll and their shared experiences have also been helpful as an eye opener to what the actual job field is like. Along with my advisor specifically, she has done nothing but try to prepare me for my program applications and undivided support and encouragement through my process.
What’s one unique experience you’ve had relating to the coursework for your academic major or area of study?
I don't think I have any one specific experience but a specific course I did not understand at the time the reason I was taking it. It was a nursing course that had student learn assessment of patients. Through job shadowing I learned that as a sonographer, you are absolutely assessing your patient throughout the entire procedure and you definitely have to document what you are seeing and make sense of what you are seeing.
How has Carroll enriched your growth as a person outside of the skills you’re learning in the classroom?
When I first started at Carroll, there were a couple of courses that had crossed my mind like "why am I taking this course for?" But little did I know that there was a logical and practical reason why I am and it made a lot of sense. The growth was learning that through these courses I took, it may not seem like they mean anything but it does open one's eyes to understanding other perspectives and different ways of observation.
