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Norman Kiwanis Club honors students of the month [The Norman Transcript, Okla.](Norman Transcript (OK) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 26--NORMAN -- The Norman Kiwanis Club recognized two Moore Norman Technology Center students as October students of the month recently. The students represent MNTC's health and technical areas of study. Southmoore High School senior Nathan Bollman is a second-year student enrolled in MNTC's entrepreneurship class. He is a member of the Business Professionals of America student organization. He serves as the class president for his class DECA chapter. He has been involved in DECA competition extensively while at MNTC. Last year, he earned first place at state competition and in the Top 15 at the International Career Development Conference in Atlanta. Bollman has the opportunity of working as a site tech at Southmoore High School, a position he took on last year. He works on the school's network and does maintenance tasks for two hours each day. He now has an assistant who works with him. He said the job is an experimental position in the district, but it allows him to have real working experience in the industry. Bollman is also a switch leader at Life Church in Moore. He started working as the hospitality leader with Life Church at their south Oklahoma City campus in 2010.He was asked to take on a leadership role when the Moore campus opened. "The worship experience is more like being at a concert, with the lead pastor delivering his message through a satellite feed. I run the service sound and video and have graphics ready to go; I take care of the production before and during worship," Bollman said. Bollman performed internships with MNTC's IT department and at the Oklahoma's Employees Credit Union while a junior in high school. This semester, he is interning with MNTC Networking & Computer Repair Instructor Barron Winters to learn about cyber security and computer forensics. He plans to pursue an associate degree in networking and cyber security at Rose State College after graduation. His entrepreneurship instructor, Nancy Pierce, said Bollman is a true entrepreneur and believes that his desire to provide excellence in service to others will make the biggest difference for him as a business owner and employer. Lauren Bajema is an adult student in MNTC's diagnostic medical sonography class and is a member of the Health Occupations Students of America. Bajema had earned a bachelor's degree in psychology through the University of Oklahoma in 2012 and had started master's degree but said she was not happy with the career pathway and didn't know what she wanted to do. Her mother, a nurse, encouraged her to do something in medical field, as Bajema had expressed an interest in working directly with patients. Through her online research, she discovered MNTC's sonography program. She met with an MNTC career advisor, completed the few prerequisites that she lacked at Oklahoma City Community College and then enrolled in the 15-month class. "I knew this is what I wanted to do because coming from a psychology background, I knew I had a passion for helping people. I love this field because I get to know the patients and, most times, I'm the only person in the room with them for 30 minutes. The intimacy between sonographer and patients is something you can't get with other fields. I'm so happy I chose this class." Bajema said she was surprised at how quickly MNTC students are put into patient care situations, but it's the best way to learn. Her class met just more than a month before they began performing at their clinical sites across the state. "As a student, we need to get out there and really see what happens. We learn hospital protocols in the second month and we're constantly making professional connections. I love it," Bajema said. She's performing clinicals at Grady Memorial Hospital in Chickasha and will rotate to five additional clinical sites while in her program. Each rotation lasts eight to 10 weeks. Bajema believes this is the best way for hospitals and doctors to learn about them as potential employees and essentially interview for jobs. She and her classmates are learning on-the-job while following certified sonographers. "The class can seem overwhelming the first few weeks, but I know now that was only because our systems weren't used to the stress. I just kept telling myself to take it day-by-day because thinking too far out wasn't good. "The intensity hasn't slowed down, but we're used to it now and know what is expected of us. But at the same time, this is more real than just sitting in a class learning from a book. You can't book learn this. You just can't," Bajema said. She said if students don't get to work with patients and scanning right away, then they have a false sense of what the practice is like. She said real scans rarely look like scans found in books. Bajema is grateful to have her DMS instructor, Shawna Harrell, as she said she is always available to her students and goes "above and beyond" to prepare learning tools and calendars to keep students on target for their studying and success. She hopes to have a job lined up after graduation next fall and after earning her DMS Certification and looks forward to moving back to Washington state to be closer to her family. For more information, visit mntc.edu or call 364-5763, ext. 7260. ___ (c)2014 The Norman Transcript (Norman, Okla.) Visit The Norman Transcript (Norman, Okla.) at www.normantranscript.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |