My name is Erin Vela, I’ve been a fire fighter since I was 18, and an EMT since I was 17. As a young, female, adult with a chronic illness, I have come to appreciate what the healthcare industry can and currently does for those in need. Regardless of that, as a young lady navigating a male-dominated field; I’ve faced quite a few challenges, and I’ve learned the value in allowing myself to grow, to enjoy the little things, and to work hard even when things get difficult. Firstly, in a field where the stakes are high, and the room for error is nonexistent, I have learned to stand up and keep going when I fall. Weather it’s answering wrong on a test, documenting incorrectly, or saying the wrong thing while doing a patient scenario in class, it isn’t easy to face our faults. This job, and these classes have taught me to allow myself to fall, as long as I’m falling forward. To continue, I’m truly blessed to have the privilege to be apart of this industry, but I don’t want to simply play a part. Part of my goal is to do the grunt work; I want to know the pain of tail-boarding on the engine at 2AM, I want to get the “my toe hurts” calls that wake me up from my sleep, and overall, I want to be the person who can be counted on when people are in need. However, my light at the end of the tunnel will be to get as overly educated in order to give my all to every patient I have. I want to make a difference for those who call for their loved ones, for those who call worried for themselves, and for those who I work along-side with. All in all, I hope to finish school as overly educated as I can be, so that I may be a person for everyone to rely on when the job begins. Im a firm believer that hard work and dedication must take place in the class before anything it can happen anywhere else. Without people who go the extra mile in the classroom, there’d be no good medics. This scholarship would provide an extra boost for that and do nothing short of launch me further into my studies by helping me stay in class so I can meet that goal.