Max RENIERIS

I was raised Homeschooled K-12 and have always had a self-driven desire to learn. I did not have the opportunity to attend college when I graduated as My family needed me to help manage a group of restaurants. I learned a lot through that experience and never lost a desire for higher education. As one of eight children, my parent gave me two options attend a university in Athens, Greece, where education is subsidized, or take out loans to attend a four-year degree in America. I left everything I had in America and moved to Greece, where my father was born, it was an enriching experience, but the pandemic brought my dreams of an education to a halt. I was on one of the first planes into Newark when the lockdowns were announced, greeted by healthcare workers in hazmat attire. I, along with the rest of the world, was thrust into online education, the teachers did their best, but the time difference made it impossible to continue. I also saw the labor need in our healthcare system and decided to become a lab assistant. I worked throughout the later stages of the pandemic as our healthcare system was pushed to its limits. This experience reoriented my life toward healthcare, and I reenrolled at a community college where I could afford tuition on my lab salary. I now work full-time as a lab operation manager and take classes part-time.