Recent Tech High School graduate Brinna Doom has always known she wanted to go into the healthcare field, and the 2020-21 school year gave Doom the opportunity to explore her career options.
Doom has always been very active and engaged in school whether it was through sports or organizations. While her senior year shifted from hybrid to distance learning and back to in-person learning, she managed to navigate a path to her future.
“All four years I did swimming, gymnastics and track for sports,” says Doom. “I also was in HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America). Last year, I was the vice president and this year I was the president.”
Doom describes HOSA as a group of students who are interested in healthcare professions who attend leadership conferences and are active in their community. She and her team have done very well at the state and international competition levels over the last few years.
“Last year, I qualified for [HOSA] internationals for public service announcement,” states Doom. “That was me and couple of other people because it was a group event. I qualified the previous year as well.”
This year, Doom has qualified for internationals as an individual under the job seeking skills category. It’s something she’s proud of especially because the 2020-21 school year was more challenging because all the conferences were virtual.
The 2020-21 school year has been one challenge after another for students and staff, but amongst the difficulties, many positive aspects have come to fruition.
“I think going into senior year felt weird,” shares Doom, “because I’m doing all of the not fun parts of senior year, but I think that experiencing this [pandemic] has allowed my whole grade to appreciate everything a bit more.”
Doom has gained her own appreciation. She learned to work more independently as well as what works and doesn’t for her and how to manage her time. Ironically, she feels more prepared for college because of the constant shift between learning models in school. However, she also took advantage of her independence and time by jump starting her career in healthcare.
Leaning on her HOSA experience of job seeking skills, medical terminology exams and more, Doom started a job as a chiropractor therapist.
“One of the doctors that came into our health careers class was a chiropractor,” states Doom. “He reached out … [and] helped me get started. I’m a receptionist, schedule appointments and do some therapies with patients. It’s really awesome.”
Looking to the Future
Last summer, Doom took some career quizzes. One test gave her a 100% match for pediatric physical therapy. She pondered the idea. So, she specifically requested a physical therapist as her e-mentor in her health careers class at school to see if she was really interested in a therapy career.
“I got to have a pediatric physical therapist as a mentor,” says Doom. “She showed me what she does every day. I toured her office. I can picture myself doing that, and it is something I think I would enjoy.”
Doom spent a good amount of time with her mentor, and she loved her health careers class. Without the class, she may have been more undecided about which healthcare career path she wanted.
“I’m going to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities,” smiles Doom. “I’m majoring in psychology and planning on going to grad school for physical therapy. I want to be a pediatric physical therapist.”
She plans on staying in Minnesota post college graduation. Where in Minnesota is still up in the air.
“I really, really like working with patients,” says Doom. “It’s what I want to be doing in 10 years.”
Fun Facts:
- Doom started swimming in middle school because a friend asked her. She wouldn’t give it up.
- She is proud to be on the Tech gymnastics team.
- Doom’s mother, Jennifer Doom, is the HOSA advisor.
You must be logged in to post a comment.