I grew up thinking “doctor” my whole life. Doctors were the ones who helped people; I needed to become a doctor. I was smart, ambitious, and totally wrong. It was high school when I finally realized one does not need to become a doctor in order to work in healthcare and to help people. From there I was able (like many graduating high school) able to explore other options. I tried pharmacy (boy, do I hate chemistry), business (turns out money isn’t that much fun if you don’t have any!) and ultimately landed on kinesiology. I loved the practice of kinesiology from day one. Helping people by promoting a healthy lifestyle, now that was my thing! I graduated from Memorial University in 2012 with an honours degree in kinesiology. I came back home to New Brunswick and began working as a personal trainer, but with the lack of population here in my small city of Saint John, it was not a permanent career path. I looked elsewhere and finally found a great job working as a kinesiologist at a private clinic in my hometown.
Fast forward to about a year ago, my job seems monotonous, and I am provided with very little opportunity for advancement if I did not want to become a physiotherapist, and I did not. This is where my search down other avenues begins. Now around this time, I have two people very close to me in the midst of cardiac surgeries and I am the caretaker for both, my life is doctor’s appointments, late nights, lots of cleaning and healthy meals. One day I find myself at the QEII in Halifax for a follow-up and in the ECG room I start talking with the cardiology technologist on duty (unannounced to her, this would later be my instructor) about her job, duties and if she enjoys it or not. I am not sure if I had ever talked to a more enthusiastic person. I was hooked. When I get home I begin researching into this “cardiology technologist” career path. There was a variety of different tasks associated with the job, I would be around people, I would be in a hospital, I would get to wear scrubs (my friends always laugh at me; I just think they are so comfy!). The more I looked the more checks it had on my list. Onward to my school search, a very important aspect in choosing a school for me was that it would not interfere with my ability to care for my family. Stenberg’s combined delivery format did just that. I would rarely have to leave home, and I would be learning about ways to better care for my family, advancing my career, potentially making more money. All these were factors in my decision and Stenberg was a win across the board. This brings me to where I am today, about six months into my program, still enjoying every up and down it brings and learning something new every day.
Check out a video of our cardio tech students in action.
![An ECG demonstrates the extensive antero-septal-lateral myocardial infarction [heart attack] that Taryn witnessed.](https://stenbergcollege.com/wp-content/smush-webp/2022/12/ecg-1024x530.jpg.webp)
