Hayseell Quijada

I am Hayseell Quijada, a first year Respiratory Therapy student born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida.
Although my parents came to the United States from EL Salvador in hopes of gaining financial stability, growing up in a rural city was rough due to them having minimal job offers because of their language barrier and non-citizenship. Growing up in that environment inspired me to work hard and acquire the skills they lacked.
I’ve always known I wanted to be successful in completing the steps to elevate my career. Immediately after graduating high school I started college as a first generation student. Even though I was eager to start my college journey, I wasn’t prepared for how vast of a variety there was to offer and at the moment I was unsure of my desired major. After to pursue my AA in Business, I was eventually hit with a personal hardship and had to halt my classes to work full time in order to be financially stable for my family of five.
This not only put a halt on my goals, but also made me feel unsure of my future.
A couple months into working, the pandemic came into effect and turned my world upside down. The entire staff, including myself, was let go due to traffic being slow and not enough sales being made. After being let go from my 9-5 and seeing how badly Covid-19 was effecting my family and peers, I decided I had no choice but to reenroll in school in hopes of obtaining a degree in healthcare to help those during hard times.
I enrolled for classes at Tallahassee Community College Fall of 2022 where this would be my first semester back in a classroom since before the pandemic. After keeping a steady pace of time management and organization readjusting back to classes, I successfully made it on to the Deans list. After doing to well my first semester back in college, I decided to test my strength and apply for a job in my career track. I started working at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital Emergency Department which is very flexible with my school schedule. Working hands on at the hospital also helped me to figure out my desired career of becoming a Respiratory Therapist. I will be entering the College’s School of Respiratory Therapy Fall of 2023.
Despite having so many set backs throughout my life, I never lost site of wanting better for myself and my family. Each struggle was a lesson that taught me a new skill I can apply in the future. I am now driven, hard working, and resilient and I will use these skills to expand my education in a major I love in hopes of implementing them in my career.