Melaina Kroft is a student at
Nebraska Methodist College in Omaha pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
She’s known since she was very young that she wanted to work in the health care
industry. When she took classes in the Southeast Nebraska Career Academy
Partnership (SENCAP) program, nursing caught her attention.
“SENCAP
helped me weed through all of the different aspects of health care until I knew
I wanted to work with patients, either as a doctor or a nurse,” she said. “I
would like to work in the emergency room, and I may continue on in my education
to get my masters (degree), but that is still to be determined.”
The
Seward native first joined SENCAP to take some prerequisite classes while still
at Seward High School, but it also forced her to look ahead. While most high
school students are focused on friends and extracurricular activities, she was
able to focus on “big-kid” issues she hadn’t thought of before.
“It
prepared me for things such as making a resume, perfecting job interviews,
finding out what my strengths and weaknesses were, and how I could apply this
to not only my college career, but to my career after college as well,” she
added.
She also learned about
time-management skills since she was taking both high school and college
classes at the same time. Kroft said this proved to be especially useful while
in college. While most students were struggling with the demands of higher
education, she was used to it.
“Other
people should consider SENCAP because it does a great job of preparing students
for college, real-life skills like job interviews and resumes, teaches each
student to understand themselves and how they work, and provides the opportunity
to get ahead in school,” she said.
Kroft
knew that participating in SENCAP would pay off in the long run, and her future
is headed in the right direction as she heads into her junior year at NMC.