Since my freshman year of high school I enjoyed math and science classes and knew I liked to use my hands to build things, but also wanted to help people. When I saw a poster at school highlighting the field of O&P a light when on that this was my calling. It spurred me to  research the field, and I saw how it was exactly what I wanted to do.

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During my high school job instructing martial arts, I had just been learning about orthoses when one of my students came in wearing AFOs. My student and her dad were kind enough to explain how they worked, and how they were such an important tool in her life. From that point I was sold on an O & P career. I charted my course to go to Texas A & M and chose a major in Biomedical Science that challenged me, as well as helped me achieve all the requirements needed to get into graduate school. 

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During freshman year at A&M, we had an O&P practitioner as a guest speaker in our career symposium course. He strongly recommended shadowing experiences to ensure interest in the field and I planned to obtain a shadowing position as soon as possible during my sophomore year. That fall I started shadowing at Central Texas Orthotics and Prosthetics. They taught me lab work and even helped me start and complete my own undergraduate research project to create an orthosis for a dog. Getting the experience of making devices and seeing the impact they had on patients' lives confirmed that this is the field for me.