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Meet Our Students: Kimberly Chaparro-Olmos

 Name: Kimberly Chaparro-Olmos, LUChA Vice President of Communications and Outreach

Pronouns: She/her

Age: 18

Residence: Tooele, Utah

Major: Surgical Tech

Academic goals: My academic goals have been to join clubs. I joined LUChA but I also want to join the National Honors club. I also want to see if I can do a research program. Then just finish my prerequisites for my major and applying for the surgical tech program.

Dream job: My dream job right now is in surgical tech and then depending on how that goes, if I like the route, I might be a general surgeon. But if I end up feeling like surgery is a little too much for me then I plan to go into nursing.

Plan B: Nursing

Why higher education: Because I felt like it was something that I needed to do for my family. I am a first-generation student. In a way, I guess it's a tradition in my family not to go to college. I wanted to break that tradition and just try something new. Honestly, I like school and I like the challenge. I felt like college would be a step forward towards a bigger challenge, and it would help me get closer to a job that I could enjoy and get better pay.

Why SLCC: For one because I'm first gen, I don't exactly have the financial money to go to a higher educational school. I felt like SLCC was financially good for me and community-wise, I felt like I would be more comfortable here. I know a lot of relatives that would go to bigger universities, and they felt lost. And I would go on field trips to the other universities, and I felt lost as well, even though I wasn't going there as a student. When I came here, I saw that people seem a lot closer, it looks more like a community. It’s not necessarily smaller, but it's more connected in a way and I like that.

What motivates you or inspires you at school or in life: My sisters. I'm the oldest of three siblings and can help set them on their paths. Because my parents didn't go to college and didn't finish high school, they couldn't really help me. I didn't have that knowledge of what I needed or what I could do in college. So just being that help and support for my sisters motivates me. Also, another thing that motivates me is thinking about my future goals and wanting to pursue them. I have heard this saying where either you sacrifice your time now, or your time later is going to be sacrificed because you didn't sacrifice it back then. I like to think of it as a sacrifice now so I can enjoy it later on.

Meaningful life or career lessons you have learned so far: Career wise, I've never had a job, but I've taken medical classes and I've done externships and the lessons that I've learned from there is that every single person has a family. And that has helped me realize that I have to keep a professional mindset and, in some cases, emotional mindset, but I can't really get involved. I have to be empathetic. For example, in surgery, say this person I’m working with, they have a family, they have feelings, they're just like me, so I need to keep that in mind when I'm working with them to ensure that I do the best work that I can. In life lessons, I would say just continuing to push even if you fail, you can do it again. Because life is just full of mistakes. You can fix them. And I've learned that the hard way.

Family: I live with my mom, my dad and my three sisters. My dad is from Mexico and came to the U.S. when he was 14 years old. And my mom was born in Jalisco and came here when she was 2.

Hobbies: I love sports. I do track, cross country, soccer and wrestling.

Awards/accomplishments: In wresting, I won third place in State in my junior year in high school and then my second year I won second place in State. And then I won first place twice in region for wrestling. I also won first place in a writing competition that was based in Spain. I also have a certification in medical terminology, and I have my Medical Assistant certification.


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