I worked in a manufacturing environment for eight years and as a Lead Operator ( Tech 4 ) for five. The work load involved numerous paper work, revising, reviewing documents specifically in my department. I was the designee signer so all batch records in the department go through me first before they get released to QA. During the time my Supervisor was on a three day vacation, I reviewed some batch records and found myself in a predicament no one should be in, one that cost me my position - my job. I was petrified! It happened so quickly, that my mind ran more than I did at times, with no direction to go. I had to take consideration my children, and if I was going to act fast, I had to act now.  Soon enough, I realized there was no job security there, even though  I was dedicated and worked zealously. 

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When I was receiving my EDD,  the agency I was working with gave me many job offers for a Lead position in manufacturing. However, I felt dismayed - traumatized even, just thinking about the situation I was previously in.  I wanted to simply settle to be an employee than to work as a Lead in a different company.  Every time I was given an offer, I was also not satisfied with the rates. It would either be too low or simply not what I wanted to do. Offer after offer came and time was running out.  Eventually, I used up all of my EDD and had no job to support myself and my three children. 

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It was then that I prayed to God and humbly spoke; “Please guide me in what I need to do.“  God began to work and work heavily.  On a given Sunday, one of the sisters, Annie, who recently came back from a long vacation, approached me,  She heard I had lost my job. and she began to encourage me to go back to school and try SPD which was just 3 months of school but 400 hours of externship.  With her constant yet loving pushing and the encouragement she gave me from her own experiences in working in this field, I was eventually convinced!  She gave me all the information of what, where and how and to be honest, I was very skeptical about pay rates, and the overall school groove of MedTek College Hayward at first but I was excited at the same time because I knew and was convinced at that moment that this is what God had prepared and laid out for me. 

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I finally enrolled in the class but also at the same time worked for a manufacturing company under a microscope five days a week and ten hours a day since I still needed to make a living somehow. When the course started, it was tremendously difficult for me to juggle everything all at once. I struggled most with finding various ways to stay awake, especially when it came to reading the one or two chapters assigned weekly. I always found myself falling asleep no matter how hard I tried to stay awake...definitely every bit of my body felt the exhaustion from working, being a Mom of three and being a student.  I regularly found myself re-reading the chapters just to be caught up and to be somehow prepared for the upcoming board exam.

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The last month of the course, I decided to prioritize school and quit my job. To me, this was necessary - I needed time for myself to study for the upcoming exam, and to have room to complete my externship.  The many things I did like about MedTek College Hayward is that they were encouraging and that they actually taught the necessities of being and working in the environment for SPD. I thank God for providing me knowledge throughout the length of the course and be given instructors and classmates who are kind, and good. With the school and everyone’s help and contribution, I was able to pass my CBSPD Board Exam Certification.

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I accomplished my externship at Kaiser Santa Clara Hospital. It was far from home, roughly twenty-eight miles. I would leave just about an hour before hitting traffic everyday and even with this amounted sacrifice, I knew I had to do everything in my will power to help myself succeed. Externship took awhile for several of my classmates and I, since we were the first students to do our externship at Kaiser Santa Clara but nonetheless, the wait and everything else paid off. 

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The first two weeks of my externship, they put me in assembly. I was very nervous and I also think it was because I did not attend the Instrumentation Class provided by MedTek because I had a family emergency to attend to. The Leads who trained me in assembly asked me if I knew any of the instruments and I nervously answered no. He then proceeded to inform me that it was not a problem, that I was there to learn and  that they would help me in every way.  I knew from there, I was in good hands. Everyone in Kaiser Santa Clara were so helpful, kind and so encouraging. They were engaged in our success and wanted us to do just that. I was able to work both afternoon and night shifts. Here is where I could say I had the best of both worlds.  Both Leads in the afternoon and night shift were the ones who trained me in different aspects of SPD. I tried working seven days a week to finish or quicken the completion of my externship.  When I would work, I would work as if I was already employed, as one of their own employees. The more I did the job tasks, the more eager I was to learn more. I was hooked into doing what I was doing. I felt energized, and felt no tiredness even after working seven days a week, including holidays. I can honestly tell you that now I would feel sad whenever I had to leave after doing a long day’s work!

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Throughout all of this, I learned so much and found confidence in my career path. When I reached four hundred hours of externship, a number of people had asked me to apply to their job sites. I was blessed to have others wanting to recommend me to their employers because they have seen my work ethic. I can proudly say, I was quickly given the opportunity to work as a full time employee, with benefits at Good Samaritan Hospital! With the help of my co worker,  Armi (who was in Kaiser Santa Clara), and my mentors in school,  Maricel Nguyen and Frank Batang, I am finally employed in a job I really enjoy!  All the hard work, sacrificed was definitely worth it!

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