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After Anthony Mendoza Jr., graduated from high school in his hometown of Carrizo Springs, he worked for four years in the oil field, where he often put in 14-hour days. He decided he wanted a different career, one that would enable him to help others. He started taking college classes and researched health professions.

“I was always really interested in anatomy and physiology,” he said. “The thing that drew me to respiratory care—especially at �����Թ�—is they are training me to be a cardio-pulmonary specialist, learning two vital organ systems. I have always wanted to have a profession that is helping the community and helping others that can’t help themselves.”

Mendoza remembers taking a tour of the lab with Kristina Ramirez, MPH, RRT, CHES, FCCP, assistant professor and director of clinical education in the Division of Respiratory Care, as a prospective student. He was impressed by the variety of mechanical ventilator equipment students learn to use and the program’s willingness to help students secure clinical rotations at a wide variety of sites.

“I feel like I can step into any hospital and be competent in my skills,” said Mendoza, who is spending his final semester back in clinical rotations—one in a COVID-19 ICU at University Hospital, one at the burn unit at SAMMC and one in the neonatal ICU. His clinical rotations have given him the kind of experience that is impossible to achieve in a lab or classroom and helped him choose the specialty he hopes to work in after graduation—neonatal pediatrics.

When he’s not studying or on rotations, Mendoza helps faculty members organize labs and tutors first-year students.

Mendoza is “a hard-working, eager-to-learn student,” Ramirez said. “He volunteers for every school and community service event offered, he assists professors in labs, his clinical preceptors have such positive feedback about him, and he is very passionate about the field of respiratory care.”

Mendoza said, “I just feel like I signed up for two years to be in this program, and I am going to give it all I’ve got. I want to leave this program and not have any regrets.”