“I’ve always known I wanted to be a nurse. Helping people is more than just work to me, it’s what I strive for. Currently, I’m at the Tech Center in a patient care technician program and I’m halfway through the year. Basically what we are is nursing assistants, so I’ll be working in a hospital this time next year helping with taking vitals, rounding patients, dressing wounds, drawing blood, and a bunch more tasks delegated to us by the nurses. I’m also currently volunteering at Holland Hospital. Working on errand and escort gives me a pretty good idea of what my future will look like. Also, I just got accepted into GRCC’s accelerated nursing program, which means I will start my nursing journey this semester with a few online prerequisite courses and in the fall I’ll be at the Lakeshore Campus taking courses like Anatomy/Physiology and Psychology. After I graduate I’ll take all of my nursing courses in Grand Rapids and I can take my NCLEX after that and I’ll be a registered nurse at 19,” said Jr. Izzy Niles