Zach Ettlinger

Growing up, I always knew I wanted to pursue a career that would provide me the opportunity to work with children. My mind was set on becoming a teacher until a unique opportunity presented itself my senior year of high school, one that would cause me to second guess the plans I had made for my future.

During my final year of high school, I had the opportunity to participate in an internship at the Northern Westchester Hospital, during which I shadowed doctors in various health care fields for the duration of the year. Some of the fields I had the opportunity to observe included oncology, pediatrics, physical therapy, obstetrics, the ER and the OR, just to name a few.

What lured me towards a career in the medical industry was the fact that I was able to witness such amazing things as an intern such as brain surgery, full knee replacements, patients being administered into the ER and live pregnancies. Even through all this excitement, I wanted to pick a career that allowed me to make a positive different in young children’s lives on a daily basis.

After high school, I attended Binghamton University, which is located upstate New York. There I was unable to study Education because the school did not yet offer it as a major. As a result of the lack of an Education program and my parents insisting I work towards becoming a doctor, I decided to take their advice and give the sciences a chance.

Unable to connect to the material, I discovered that I had only appreciated the field due to certain things I had witnessed during my internship. I was not truly interested in pursuing this as a career and so I decided to shift the direction of my learning and change my major to Human Development. This would allow me to later study education at the graduate level, and eventually allow me to do what I was most passionate about, to teach.

I was fortunate enough to be exposed to a few education classes my senior year as an Education minor was finally introduced. In December of 2014, I graduated from Binghamton University with a major in Human Development and a minor in Education. Currently, I attend Pace University at the graduate level where I am studying Childhood Education with a minor in Special Education where I hope to graduate at the culmination of 2016.