Firelands Success Stories

For Luz Reyes, the decision to study Radiologic Technology at BGSU Firelands meant a new start after a personal tragedy.  She says “My story started when I lost a daughter 4 years ago. She was handicapped.  She was 17 ½ years old, and I dedicated all my life to take care of her.  And when she passed away I had all this time, and I didn’t know what to do.”

Faced with the question of what to do next, she turned to her family: “I talked to my sister and said ‘what should I do?’ and she said ‘Go back to school’.  I said ‘To do what?  I’m 44 years old.’”  After careful thought, Luz decided to enroll at BGSU Firelands and pursue a career as a Radiologic Technician.

As a returning student, Luz faced the uncertainty of going to school after being away from the classroom for many years.  A native of Puerto Rico, Luz was also concerned about her language skills.  Her strongest worry, though, was about the needs of her family.  She says “I knew it was going to be a big challenge to me because at that time I was with 3 kids.  2 of them were handicapped, one of them was in high school, and my husband was in the military.  He served 2 terms in Iraq.  And I was going to school.  So it was an experience.”

However, her hard work and determination paid off: “Once I got into the program, and I felt comfortable, I thought ‘I’m a person who’ll do 110%’. And so it was a great thing for me.  It was a challenge, and I challenged myself, and I came in the top of my class.”

Luz says that she is grateful for the support of the Director of the program, who “was always telling me ‘Luz, you can do it, you can do it. Go for it’.  She was my adviser, and guided me through the whole process.” She also says that being older than many of her classmates didn’t bother her: “The other students were great.  I was the oldest one in the class.  The kids were in their 20s, and I felt like the mother of all of them.”

When asked her advice for adult students thinking about returning to school she says: “Do it.  Do it.  It’s worth it, it’s rewarding.  You put your mind and your emphasis, and tell your self ‘I’m going to do it. I have the power’, and do it.  If I can do it, anybody else can do it. 

Luz says that the training in the Radiologic Technology program is hands-on and practical: “Everything we practiced in class, we read the book, we practiced, and we took an exam.  One time I would be the Tech, and the next I would be the patient, and we practiced on each other.”

She also says the program is also strongly science-based, which can require a lot of hard work.  She says “Some of the classes were very intensive, like Pathophysiology.  I studied every single day.  I slept with that book – but I passed the test!”

According to Luz, an advantage of the program, and one of the things she enjoyed most, is the clinical component: “In the clinical, you have the interaction with a real patient.  That’s a great thing because you’re taking the history, and you’re reporting that to the doctor so he can do a better evaluation of the pictures, because sometimes pictures don’t tell the whole story.  You have to go and get a little background of that patient.  So I feel that I’m doing something to help the doctor help that patient to find out what’s wrong. 

Luz suggests that people interested in Radiologic Technology spend time observing Radiologic Technologists on the job.  “This program asks you to shadow somebody, and that’s a great thing.  Shadow 2 days in different places and check it out.  Because there are a lot of things that the book doesn’t say, that you may not learn in the lab.  (You’ll benefit from) following a Tech during examinations with real patients.”

Ultimately, Luz says her experience in her career so far has been worth the hard work.  She says “I love it.  I love it, I’m so excited. It’s a wonderful experience. I love my field.  I feel it’s the field I was meant to be in.”