In an email interview with Kindra Tyminski, she spoke about why she wanted to go into a Radiology Program. She is a senior in the Radiology Program at Southern Vermont College (SVC) and will graduate in 2015.
“I had known that I loved helping people and making a difference, so I began to research the medical field. I saw how many different options you can have after graduating with a degree in radiology and was sure this was the path for me. I came across Southern Vermont and noticed they had rolling admissions.”
In the Spring of 2013, Kindra was accepted into the Pre Radiology Program at SVC. She went to Vermont to make her schedule. She met with her advisor who told her she needed one course to get into the program this year. If she took it over the summer, she could begin the Radiology Program that year instead of waiting. She had just turned 20. She was able to take the one course over the summer. In the Fall of 2013, she began the program.
That year Kindra was the only transfer student accepted into the program. She was nervous, but Linda Lippacher, Julie Walsh and the faculty welcomed her. She was able to make that transition. She spoke about what is expected throughout the program.
“My advice to any upcoming students is to be prepared. You will be informed that is will be difficult. Although it is difficult, it will be the best decision in your life. The experience this program gives you and the knowledge you will leave with, will make you into a professional technologist.
The beginning of clinical is difficult. You have every technologist educating you differently. You are also being educated differently in lab. After a while, you learn that you will take a little bit of every advice with you and that is what will shape you into your own technologist. The summer before your senior year you do 12 weeks of clinical, 40 hours a week and as much as you look at it and think ‘wow that sucks, give up my summer and not even get paid’. It will be the best summer you can ask for. You start to develop relationships with the techs at the hospitals; you even start to become your own tech. Being there every day you really begin to feel comfortable.”
In May of 2015, Kindra will graduate from the program. Her clinical rotations are at Glens Falls Hospital. She has developed relationships with several of the technologists at the hospital. She is hoping for a job opportunity at the hospital. “I learned so much through my time here and would hate to have to leave everyone. Everything. This program is tough, but I am prepared to graduate and become a technologist.”