Star Stories

To me, teamwork means that everyone gives and takes the same amount when given a task. Everyone has different talents and skills that can be useful, and without teamwork the task could go on for a lot longer than needed.
The interview process for entrance into the Education program consists of a group interview where ten of us were given a task to figure out together. There was no right answer and no wrong answer, but we were told to come up with one decision together. We were given a list of eight people with different situations and were told that we were on a medical board and given this list of people, and we needed to decide in descending order who would get a kidney that was ready for donation. We were given only twenty minutes to decide. The following was the list of people we were given:
· And illegal alien from Mexico with a wife and six children he is supporting on minimum wage
· A pregnant teenager who has given up on life.
· A very religious woman who doesn’t believe in medical intervention and believes that God is the only one who can save her
· A sixty-five year old retired educator that donates to his local children’s hospital.
· An ex-con who now lives with his wife and three children and who is trying to get a good paying job.
· A tourist from another country whose kidneys shut down suddenly.
· An alcoholic mother trying to raise her son and get sober.
· A twenty-one year old young woman who has Downs Syndrome.
We began discussing one person at a time, but I then suggested that we get a marker and keep track on the white board what we decided about each person so we could remember when it came time to deciding who would get the kidney. We discussed each situation in detail and after the twenty minutes of discussion time was up, we finally decided on the retired educator because he has given his time freely while educating children, and even though he is retired, still gives of himself to help children. This is the order in which we decided the kidney would go and the reason behind our decision:
1. Retired Educator: reason given above.
2. Pregnant Teenager: As long as doing surgery was safe on a pregnant mother, we decided that she would ultimately find out that life was worth living once she became a mother.
3. Downs Syndrome girl: Even though she has Downs, she can still be a contributing member of society.
4. Ex-con: He has a family he is trying to support and he has done his time in prison for his crime.
5. Alcoholic Mother: Although she is trying to get sober, alcohol has a negative impact on kidneys, so to give a new one to someone still consuming alcohol.
6. A tourist: We decided that if this person was healthy enough to travel, it would be best for them to go home and be treated.
7. Illegal Alien: We decided that if he was here illegally, the kidney should go to a citizen of our country.
8. Religious woman: We decided that since it is her own choice because of religion, she might not take care of herself and the new kidney and it’s not right to encroach on someone’s religious beliefs.
Challenges are sometimes hard to overcome. I had to overcome a challenge when I was laid off from my job in February of 2009. I had worked at this particular job for 10 years and felt very loyal to the company, but then out of the blue I was laid off and no longer had a job. This cut my family’s income in half and created quite a lot of problems. During this time, the economy was starting to take a nose dive and there were no available jobs, and when one came open there were so many people applying for one job it was nearly impossible to get hired. So, my husband and I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity for me to go back to school. So I signed up and started taking classes that summer. I am in the middle of the results now, but hopefully the FINAL result will be a degree in the field that I’ve always loved and wanted to work in.
My goal of graduating from college has been fifteen years in the making. I started this goal back in 1996 after graduating from high school, but soon came to a halt after I got married and started a family. I was only able to finish one semester of school, and then got caught up in the daily life of a mother and wife and that goal never came to fruition. But now I find myself, fifteen years later seeing this goal come to life, and I am loving it. It has been a long hard road, but the gratification I have every time I pass a class makes it worth it.