As told by David Nelson
UVU is a place for growth. You're able to learn and leave a different person.
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I came to UVU initially through a music scholarship. I hadn't ever considered UVU as a serious option until I got scholarships. My music teacher said I should look into them, and that just gave me a good initial foot in the door. From there, I was able to find my major and get different opportunities.
One day in my math class, I got talking to the kid who sat behind me, and he said that he was doing public health with an emphasis in healthcare administration. I asked him more about that, and he put me in touch with his advisor. I had thought of doing physical therapy, and I thought of doing business and law, but I'd never heard of anything that combined all of them. So, hearing about healthcare administration was interesting because I could work in healthcare, which is helping people, but I also can do business, I can look into finance and do legal things. It was a good opportunity to combine everything. So, I met with the advisor, and the rest is history.
I served a mission in Ecuador for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When I came home, I knew I wanted to keep up my Spanish. [While] taking Spanish classes, I found out about the healthcare major. I was able to take business classes in Spanish and get an interpreting qualification. Now, I can interpret and do different medical Spanish things.
I have done some work with refugees in the past, and you never realize how hard it is for someone when they're in a place where they don't know what anybody else is saying. To be the one connection that they have is such a powerful and tender moment. In healthcare, oftentimes, people go through the hardest and most stressful things. To have someone who speaks their language and understands what they're saying can be really comforting and helpful. I only speak Spanish and English, but I love being able to just connect with other people, understand their culture, and see where they're coming from. It's really empowering for me to talk to other people in Spanish and English and to be able to connect. We all value connection and want to be loved and served.
One of the most impactful things in my life was when I was in my junior year of high school. My mom got Guillain-Barré syndrome, which is an autoimmune disease. She got the flu, and then the body turned from the flu to your own nervous system, so she was paralyzed. She was in a hospital for a couple of months, and then I think it was a full year from when she was diagnosed to when she was up and walking again.
That’s why I love healthcare. Because you take somebody at their worst, and you help them get back to whatever the next equivalent of the best is. So, if that's a full recovery, awesome; if it's not, they're still better. Seeing my mom go from active and fun-loving, to being stuck in a hospital bed and slowly learning how to walk again and use her hands, is really impactful. Now, she's playing pickleball, and you'd never know that she wasn't able to walk a couple of years ago.
I can't say enough about the doctors and nurses, the different physical therapists, the different neurologists, and all the people who helped her. That's been amazing for me. I would say that’s the main reason why I've ended up in healthcare — to help people the same way they helped my mom.
I remember my mom having to do different things in physical therapy like touch a ball, touch her finger, and touch her nose. I remember seeing the healthcare providers genuinely excited. I love that they are in a position where they can help others and just feel genuine joy. We’re not their family, but they care as if we were.
I'm grateful that I can take my education and use it to just help other people my whole life. I just like compassionate service and loving others. The Bible talks about loving God and others, and when you serve others, you serve God. Being able to take my education and help others in a better way is something I look forward to. I want to help people, but now I have the right tools and education to actually make a difference. Not that I know everything, but I can at least say that I now know enough to help improve their healthcare outcomes.
I've loved the healthcare administration major because it's forward-thinking rather than what the industry is focusing on right now. I was in a case competition with other universities, and it was just very interesting to see the different focuses that we've learned at UVU versus what is still going on in healthcare. Our professors have taught us that there are a lot of things we probably should do differently. But then we get into the case competition, and we have all these forward-thinking ideas, but the judges were still thinking in the now and about how to make more revenue. Our professors have helped us see what's not working and why we need to fix certain things.
I did an internship with Mountain View Hospital in Payson. We did some work to learn more about the LGBTQ community and getting them better care. I looked into pronoun usage and different things that affect care because language is one great way to give access to care. Proper pronouns are a great way of impacting care and making somebody feel included versus marginalized or separated. Those small differences in pronoun usage and recognizing the different percentages of Spanish speakers, LGBTQ members, and those different parts of the community being able to see that is another important thing.
I feel like when I started UVU, I was just attending. But then, when I got into the healthcare administration major, that's where I felt like I found what I was looking for. I just happened to be at UVU when they made the program, and the stars aligned for it. I felt like I was part of something new.
UVU is a place for growth. You're able to learn and leave a different person, whether it's what you came in wanting to do or whether it's completely different. Looking back [at who I was] when I started to the person that I am, I'm completely different. I've grown in a lot of ways — in my Spanish, my knowledge, and experience. I feel able to take on the world.
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