Unlike many high school students, Gracie Brietspecker knew what she wanted to do with her life, but sometimes things take longer than expected. Gracie is a former Potosi High School student who graduated in 2022. After graduation, she knew what she wanted to do; Gracie wanted to make money after getting through a two-year program that fit her interests. She “wanted a career where I could help people,” but she did not want it to be directly hands-on, like a nurse. That is when she decided to apply to Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC ) and apply for their radiology technology program.
Gracie now attends NICC in Peosta, Iowa. She chose this college because she did not want to be far from home, it was a two-year program, and they had a really good radiology program. When Gracie applied for the program, she found out she was going to be on the waitlist for two years because that program was so big and hard to get into. Gracie decided to take other classes at NICC while she waited to be accepted.
Before becoming a radiologic technologist she had to know the muscular, skeletal, respiratory, and skin systems. Gracie also had to know all the organs, the location of the organs, and what their specific functions are.
A radiologic technologist is someone who is typically supervised by a radiologist, the doctor who does all of the imaging and diagnoses and treats patients. Gracie knew this was the career field she would like to be in, because she could still help others, but did not have to be as hands-on.
While still on the waitlist for the NICC radiology technology program, Brietspecker completed her general education courses; she also had to pass both Anatomy One and Two. Brietspecker said anatomy was hard, “but I knew I needed to pass, so I tried my best.” She had already taken medical terminology in her senior year of high school through Southwest Technical College (SWTC). She was able to get a head start on that because of the dual credit program that Potosi High School offers.
The SWTC College UP courses are classes students can take while in high school. There are set dates that students need to apply and get approval on for the future semester. In these classes they are taught by a SWTC instructor and the students work on the SWTC academic timeline. The grades and credits received from these courses are given by the instructors and then transferred to their high school transcript, and they also establish a college transcript from SWTC which may be transferred to other schools.
Once Gracie graduates from the program, she plans on getting a job right away in the radiology field. Depending on how the job field looks, Brietspecker might go back to school to train more on MRIs, ultrasounds, and CT scans. If she was given the opportunity, Gracie stated that she would love to be able to travel with her job.
Gracie was recently accepted into and will be enrolled in the radiology program in the fall of ‘24. Although it was a long wait, she is now ready to start the next chapter working toward her chosen career.