Running head: CHANGING LANES AT LORAS COLLEGE

Changing Lanes at Loras College

Javier Soto
Loras College
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My time at Loras College has made me grow and change over the years. I began my time

at Loras College pursuing a Bio major so that I could get into medical school. I had second

thoughts on the career of a doctor because of real doctor’s descriptions of the difficulties of

becoming and being a doctor. Many descriptions would talk about the rewarding feeling of

making someone get better from an illness, relieving someone’s pain, and making their life easier

with good health. Other doctors talked about the depression that could set in in medical school

and when working with patients. This could be from not being able to save patients life, or not

being able to diagnose a problem. I had made it my goal from a very young age to be doctor,

mostly because I wanted to do a service that would help people. My abilities in the class room

for premed did not reflect my ambitions, I failed out of Bio Stats because of some difficulty

caused by a concussion and my inability to focus on my school work. That semester was difficult

because I had to evaluate that maybe being a doctor is not going to be my career. I still wanted to

help people though, I wanted a career that would allow me to help and learn from other health

professionals to gain real life experience that I could build over a many years. I had interest in

becoming a psychology major after taking the class Interpersonal relationships the semester

when my grades dropped. This class was taught by Dr.Ormazu was just a filler class that

semester so I could stay eligible for wrestling that fall. I learned how relationships with those

closest to me can be improved by understanding how to communicate with one another and

knowing dynamics of relationships. I changed my major, but I still had an interest for science

and the medical field. When I was speaking to my older sister about my career change she let me

know about the 2 year accelerated nursing program at DePaul university, all that is needed to

apply is to have a bachelors and had taken certain nursing classes such as organic chemistry,

anatomy, and other Bio classes. I taught that choice over and realized that it offered to me what I
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wanted out of a career. I would learn fundamental knowledge of human behavior by majoring in

psychology, and then have medical training to help treat those patients the best way I could.

There was one problem because I had dedicated so much of my time to the wrestling

team in four years of college I had not gained solid experience working internships during the

school year. My summers were filled with training and working jobs to make money for tuition

and rent. One summer I worked at a dump for 11.50 an hour and concrete work another summer

for similar pay. The concrete job was difficult but taught me a lot about work ethic and

controlling one’s attitude when doing a difficult task. During my work in concrete I had a lot of

encouragement from my coworkers to get good grades in school so that I could get a better job.

Although that was the plan I had a long way to go because I changed my major. I spent the

majority of my senior year taking the required biology courses needed to apply to the program. I

was also taking classes to graduate with a Bachelors in Psychology. Because I had taken so long

to switch majors I had to take another semester to finish taking my psychology classes and a J-

term to finish my general education classes requirement. Finding out how long it would take was

frustrating, explaining to my father and mother what was happening was the most challenging.

After a lot of questions, both my parents let me know that they supported me with my new goal.

The summer between my extra semester and the end of senior year, my sister told me

about her job as a Behavioral health counselor. The place she worked at was called Insight

behavioral health centers and they treat mood disorders, anxiety disorders, trauma-related

disorders. She told me to apply, but I had to tell her that I couldn’t because I had still not earned

my bachelors of psychology. The job did interest me though, they would train me in being a

behavioral health counselor and give me job getting experience working with people. I made the

plan to apply to that job after I earned my degree to gain experience with patients. The other
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reason would be to save enough money to apply for the 2 year accelerated nursing program at

DePaul University. I finally had a plan to get to my chosen career of nursing. This put a lot of

stress behind me knowing that there was an actual path I can take to reach my goal.

The classes of psychology that I took at Loras College taught me the different ways

humans think and interact with each other. Classes such as Abnormal psychology was great in

giving me a better understanding on how brain abnormalities and disorders can affect someone’s

behavior in different ways. This class also showed the misconception people have of a certain

disorder such as schizophrenia, which is often not portrayed accurately in media. The class also

had us analyzing the criteria needed for psychologist to make a diagnosis of a certain disorder.

These criteria are specific and require prolonged symptoms such as emotional extremes in

depression, and bipolar disorder. The DSM-5 is the official diagnosis and statistical manual of

APA and was our guide to make presentation on our assigned disorders for that class. Another

class that gave me insight on what makes people have energy for certain things was Motivation

and emotion. This class looked closely at how human work at why certain motivational methods

fail and others succeed. This class helped me understand myself more than anything. I was

having trouble motivating myself to keep going with school knowing I had a long way to

graduate. This class made me understand that goals as large as the one I have should be

accompanied by a plan with smaller goals in-between. Being overwhelmed to the point of

paralysis of a task can be demotivating, breaking it up into chunks and not looking too far in the

future helped me gain daily motivation for what I was learning in classes. I was quite proud of

the paper I wrote about procrastination because it showed me how my own bad habits can lead to

me hurting my grades. Other classes such as social psychology, sociology, and interpersonal

relationships showed me the intricacies of human relationships and society. This paired with
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developmental psychology class have shaped the way I look at people and has made me a lot

more compassionate towards people. Knowing that different experiences can affect how people

act has made me more understanding of people. My communication skills in my professional and

personal relationships has improved drastically because of this understanding. The skills that I

have learned in these classes will help me becoming a behavioral health counselor. Seeing as I

would have to motivate certain people to work through problems with a mood, anxiety, or

trauma-related disorders. Many disorders can only be overcome when the person is ready to

make a change. Finding the right motivator for people would be critical in helping them get over

their disorder. Finally using the motivational strategies, I learned in that class to help me strive to

be better at my job. Other skills important to becoming a behavioral health counselor would be

having sensitivity to each case in its own way because of the nuances in human relationships.

Different traumas can manifest into certain behavioral symptoms in different people each case is

unique. To understand the nuances of every situation I would have to be thorough when asking

clients about their problems to get a better view of what the solution could be. People have

different situations that cause their behavior. Another part that will guide my understanding of

disorders as a behavioral health counselor was the information I learned in physiological

psychology, and anatomy. In those classes I researched how exercise can help mental health.

Exercise helps the body physically by increasing sympathetic nerve drive, and muscle activation.

It helps mentally by releasing feel good hormones and increasing blood flow to the brain. When

treating people as a behavioral health counselor I will always suggest that if anything the person

should be getting some activity in their day to stay healthy mentally and psychically.

Before I even start treating patients I will need to go through training at Insight BHC.

They will train me in how to treat patient’s day to day and the ethics of being a behavioral health
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counselor. The sections that pertain to my future job as a behavioral health counselor would be

all of them except for section 8 research and publication. Section 10 would be the ethics section

that would pertain the most to my field. I would have to keep a professional relationship with my

clients while still giving them the support and understanding they need. Knowing about

confidentiality and having the right training will be important in becoming a BHC. In case I

cannot be a behavioral health counselor I will attempt to find another similar job or internship to

gain some experience. My ultimate goal is to become a nurse but if I cannot make it because of

finances I can put it off while I work as a BHC. This would be my back up plan to just work as a

BHC for a while becoming more financially stable to return to school later on.

My time here at Loras College may not have been the most efficient for my career but it

was crucial in making me a well-rounded person. I can connect information from my biology

classes and my psychology classes. Knowing how to connect the information from the different

classes I learned at Loras College did not clique with me the first year I came here. Looking

back, I can see now that my public health class, could connect to my physiological psychology in

different ways such as how depression diagnosis could be correlated to the higher numbers of

people not getting proper nutrition or exercise. Other classes such as the J-term I took my senior

year called Diabetes, cancer, and heart disease showed me the difficulties that can come from

one disease and the affects it has on the patient emotionally and physically. This class taught me

the different ways people cope with hardship. The speakers that Dr. T brought in were amazing

people that either survived cancer or treat patients of other diseases. They gave us real life

lessons and insight to the lives of people in the medical field. Knowing I am a well-rounded

person because of my education at Loras College gives me confidence entering the work force.