All posts by Jada Ryan, Correspondent

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Intern shares experiences

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Medical assisting student got hands-on training

NECC has many great opportunities, especially for internships.  One program that is growing is the Health Care Program. NECC student Estephany Guillen recently spoke about the opportunity she was able to have during her internship.  Guillen got an internship as a medical assistant at an OBGYN office. Before she was able to get into this program she had to take classes in order to get her trained for the role she was about to jump into. They needed a certain amount of training.

Before Guillen was able to get into the program she had to take classes like human biology, medical terminology, intro to medical assisting, medical assisting 1 and 2, clinic lab procedures, medical office administration and medical assistant practice. She had to learn the skills necessary. She explained to me how her classes got tested, the class practiced on each other by completing tasks such as, taking vital signs and just overall treating their assigned classmate as a patient. If they passed these tests they were all sent to different practices to do their internships. Estephany stated “these classes really helped get the knowledge and experience needed before walking into an office. The clinic labs are what helped me the most because it’s exactly what you do when you get to finally do an internship.”

These classes helped Guillen gain the knowledge in all bases needed, they got to practice on classmates, which is great the school enables students to do that because a lot of people in our generation work better hands on!  She got to learn the technical stuff by studying the terminology and the administration and practice parts before she got to do it on real patients.Guillen explains how “different it is to study on real patients because everything you have been learning and studying finally falls together.

It all starts to click when you’re starting to work with real patients, you begin seeing how the textbook falls together with your hands on work as well.”  Guillen explains this was a great experience and something she believes everyone should have the opportunity to do because she didn’t realize how much knowledge would be behind all the hard work she has put in and it is great to hear her story and to hear how much she has grown into her study.

Guillen’s internship is now over and she was recently hired to be a full time medical assistant at the office she began her internship at.  It is actually funny because in the beginning she did not want to do an internship at an OGBYN it was not her preferred practice.  She has started to love the study and is excited for her great opportunity and job NECC has helped her receive and cannot wait for her next journey!

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Remembering Liza Ruiz

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Friend shares fond memories of student

Editor’s note: Dec. 3 was the one-year anniversary of the death of 18-year-old Liza Ruiz, of Lawrence, who was a student in the Journalism/Communication program at Northern Essex Community College. Her  close friend, Jada Ryan, is a current student in the program and she shared this remembrance of Ruiz:

Liza, Marielsy and Jada. The three of us were inseparable, we did everything together. We hung out everyday. Shopping, nails, hair, makeup, movies, anything. We were always together. We ensured we had every single class together throughout high school and college. Liza has taught me so much through our 5 years of friendship, she taught me how to love myself and to never let anyone ever make me feel less than what I was. She always reminded me of what I deserved and what I meant to her and the world.

She taught me a lot about clothes, thank god. I remember she started carrying purses, and I asked her “Liza, why do you have a purse, were teenagers, what could you possibly keep in there?” and she answered with “Bro, are you serious? These things are clutch, I keep perfume, lotion, hand sanitizer, extra makeup, my charger, my wallet, pens, anything I would need throughout the day.” Liza brought out a side of me I will never let go of. She brought out a very bubbly, outgoing and confident side of me that I never knew I had.

She always reminded me of my beauty, my humor and how genuinely nice she thought I was. She said to me ”I don’t know why you’re so shy, just be yourself with people.” Whether she realized it

close up photo of Liza Ruiz. She is wearing a green camo jacket
Liza Ruiz Courtesy photo

or not she really helped me become who I am today. Everyone always told us we were the funniest three people to hangout with when we were together. The way we spoke, the conversations we had, our goofy dances and jokes we would make together not caring who was around, people loved what we brought out in each other. It was us just being us. I was always told we were so much alike and we knew it too.

I’ll never forget Liza and I’ll carry on her contagious energy she shared and the lessons I have learned from her. Liza was my person, she knew exactly how I felt before I spoke. We always had something stupid going on, but we’d just sit together and say “wow this sucks” and laugh it off together because we had each other. She was that one person that I never got sick of. I’m going to miss having her in my life, I know it won’t be the same but I know she’s looking over me. She was the person that helped me through every decision to make, even if it was “which shoes should I wear with this outfit?”

I’m just going to think about what Liza would say when I need help making a decision, or when I need her advice. I feel blessed to have known her, even more blessed to have had her by my side for so many years, blessed to have always been introduced as her “bestest friend ever” and blessed to have learned so much from such a bright and amazing soul. She truly was my soul sister. It was as if we were meant to be sisters. She made everyone around her light up. You could never be sad around her, she always knew the right things to say to reassure you that it’ll get better. I wish we had gotten the chance to grow up with her, turn 21 with her, see her have kids and do amazing things with her life because I know she would’ve done outstanding things.

She would have really shown everyone who she was and her ambition to prosper. I wish she got to see me have my first kid, get my first house, etc. She always said “I’m going to become famous and make you famous for being my best friend, so don’t worry about your career.” and we’d laugh. We were suppose to become adults drinking wine in the kitchen gossiping while our kids played together. I’m going to do everything we talked about doing with our futures, without her now, but for her. I know she wouldn’t want anything less. I gained a guardian angel and it’s not the same as having my best friend by my side. She always watched out for me in this life and I know she will be doing from up above. If I was heaven I wouldn’t want to wait for such an amazing soul either. I wish she could see the progress I have made within myself and my life. Now, she belongs to the stars in the clouds.